Definition of "daemon" in English

noun

1. (mythology) A minor deity or divinity.

   • 2018, Carolyn Graves-Brown, Daemons and Spirits in Ancient Egypt, University of Wales Press, page 46, On some apotropaic wands the hippopotamus daemon bites or devours a person.⁸⁸ On a well-known New Kingdom papyrus, Taweret, who is named, is listed amongst evil daemons.

2. A muse, a personified source of inspiration, especially one that also causes anguish.

   • 2015, Harold Bloom, The Daemon Knows, Penguin Random House (Random House), eBook edition, unnumbered page, Coleridge, deep in daemons, looked to them for his poetic power: They gave him Kubla Khan, Christabel, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He welcomed his daemon or genius and yet feared it.

3. An idea depicted as an entity.

4. (Commonwealth, uncommon) Alternative spelling of demon.

noun

1. (computing, Unix) A process (a running program) that does not have a controlling terminal.