aquiline

comparative more aquiline · superlative most aquiline

1. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of eagles; resembling that of an eagle.

   Frank's aquiline nose jutted out from underneath his glasses.

   5 more examples

   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?

   1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter 22, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC

   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.

   1791, Edmund Burke, Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs, London: J. Dodsley, pages 139–140

   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.

   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

   […] Wani, whose smooth sleekness had been part of his charm, seemed to Nick to grow leaner and ever more aquiline.

   2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 11, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 283

   He once recalled, of the father who called him “dear old boy” and whose aquiline nose and rectilinear figure he inherited, “After having hugged me, which he did rarely, he sent me away after 15 minutes.”

   2024 March 13, Adam Nossiter, “Philippe de Gaulle, Admiral and Son of Charles de Gaulle, Dies at 102”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: eaglelike