In classical mythology: a bird resembling an eagle but with sumptuous red and gold plumage, which was said to live for five or six hundred years in…

the phoenix (phoenix, n.1 1); (also) figurative a person or thing of unique excellence (cf. phoenix, n.1 2a).

(a name for) the phoenix.

A little phoenix. (In quot. depreciative.)

A fabulous bird (by Europeans commonly called the phœnix), one of the symbols of the imperial dignity in China.

= phoenix, n.1 1.