Definition of "pagod"

We went to vizet the antient monumentes of Japon, and amongst the rest the pagod, or monument, erected in remembrance of Ogosho Samma, the last Emperour, which, in my opinion, is the most magnificent peece of work which I have seene in Japon, both for the greatenesse and workmanship.

1618, Richard Cocks, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson, Diary of Richard Cocks, Cape-Merchant in the English Factory in Japan, 1615-1622, with Correspondence‎, volume II, New York: Burt Franklin, page 75

'T would burst ev'n Heraclitus with spleen / To see those antics, Fobling and Courtin: / The Presence seems, with things so richly odd, / The mosque of Mahound, or some queer pagod.

1735, Alexander Pope, Satire IV, Satires, in The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, edited by Henry Walcott Boynton, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1903, lines 364-7

The altar of St. Peter's choir, notwithstanding all the ornaments which have been lavished upon it, is no more than a heap of puerile finery, better adapted to an Indian pagod, than to a temple built upon the principles of the Greek architecture.

1766, Tobias Smollett, Travels through France and Italy‎, Letter XXXI

See'st thou yon river, whose translucent wave, / Forth issuing from the darkness, windeth through / The argent streets o' th' city, imaging / The soft inversion of her tremulous domes, / Her gardens frequent with the stately palm, / Her pagods hung with music of sweet bells,

1829, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Timbuctoo”, in The Works of Alfred Tennyson, volume XII, Boston: Dana Estes & Co., published 1895, page 293

If they say that the King is more powerfull, How comes it then to pass, say we, that the King throws himself upon his Knees before the Pagod, and adores him by bowing his head to the Earth?

1688, Gabriel Magalhaens, A New History of China, translator not credited, London: Thomas Newborough, p. 259

They worship idols called pagods, after such a terrible representation as we make of devils.

17th C., Edward Stillingfleet (1635-1699), cited in Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755

How strictly do the Banians, and the other Sects of the Gentile East-Indians worship their Pagods, and respect their Temples?

1705, William Wotton on A Tale of a Tub, in Jonathan Swift: The Critical Heritage, Kathleen Williams (ed.), 2002, London: Routledge, p. 46

Offered to take Scrope home in my carriage; but he was tipsy and pious, and I was obliged to leave him on his knees praying to I know not what purpose or pagod.

1814, Lord Byron, Journal in Thomas Moore, The Life of Lord Byron, with his Letters and Journals, London: John Murray, 1854, p.233

At each spontaneous tribute rendered by the wayfarers to this black pagod of a fellow—the tribute of a pause and stare, and less frequent an exclamation,—the motley retinue showed that they took that sort of pride in the evoker of it which the Assyrian priests doubtless showed for their grand sculptured Bull when the faithful prostrated themselves.

1924, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Billy Budd‎, London: Constable & Co.

The Money which the English Coin at the Fort of St. George upon the Coast of Cormandel, they call Pagods (as those of the Kings and Raja's of the Country are called) are of the same weight for goodness, and pass at the same value, which is about the weight of the French half Pistol; but the Gold is of baser Metal, […]

1700, Robert Morden, Geography Rectified, or A Description of the World‎, London: R. Morden & T. Cockerill, page 334