aquiline

English

WOTD – 11 November 2006
Aquiline

Etymology

From Latin aquilīnus, from aquila (eagle).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈæk.wɪ.laɪn/
  • (file)

Adjective

aquiline (comparative more aquiline, superlative most aquiline)

  1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of eagles; resembling that of an eagle.
    Synonym: eaglelike
    Frank's aquiline nose jutted out from underneath his glasses.
    • 1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter 22, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. [], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: [] [William Strahan] for J. Osborn [], →OCLC:
      He was about the age of two-and-twenty, among the tallest of the middle size; had chestnut-coloured hair, which he wore tied up in a ribbon; a high polished forehead, a nose inclining to the aquiline, lively blue eyes, red pouting lips, teeth as white as snow, and a certain openness of countenance—but why need I describe any more particulars of his person?
    • 1791, Edmund Burke, Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, London: J. Dodsley, pages 139–140:
      Think of a genius not born in every country or every time: a man gifted by Nature with a penetrating, aquiline eye; with a judgment prepared with the most extensive erudition; with an herculean robustness of mind, and nerves not to be broken with labour; a man who could spend twenty years in one pursuit.
    • 1903 September 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Empty House”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:
      Holmes looked even thinner and keener than of old, but there was a dead-white tinge in his aquiline face which told me that his life recently had not been a healthy one.
    • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 11, in The Line of Beauty [], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 283:
      [] Wani, whose smooth sleekness had been part of his charm, seemed to Nick to grow leaner and ever more aquiline.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

French

Pronunciation

Adjective

aquiline

  1. feminine singular of aquilin

Italian

Adjective

aquiline

  1. feminine plural of aquilino

Latin

Pronunciation

Adjective

aquilīne

  1. vocative masculine singular of aquilīnus
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