A‧lad‧din /əˈlædɪn $ -dn/
a young male character in a story from The Arabian Nights. Aladdin is employed by a magician to steal a lamp from a secret cave (=a large hole in the side of a cliff or under the ground), which is full of jewels and valuable objects. When Aladdin finds the lamp and rubs it, a genie (=a creature with special powers) appears and says to Aladdin, ‘Your wish is my command,’ by which he means that Aladdin may ask for anything he wants and the genie will give it to him. Aladdin keeps the lamp and, with the genie’s help, becomes rich and marries the sultan's daughter. Then the magician, by offering ‘new lamps for old’, tricks Aladdin’s wife so that she exchanges the old magic lamp for an ordinary one. Aladdin finally finds the magician, kills him, and gets the magic lamp back again. The story of Aladdin is often performed as a pantomime (=a humorous play for children) in the UK during the period around Christmas.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲