owlish

comparative more owlish · superlative most owlish

1. Resembling or characteristic of an owl.

   1914, Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, Chapter 26, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/fr100299.txt "You're very right," he said, with owlish smugness, adjusting a waistcoat button that had come loose, and smoothing his cuffs.

   2 more examples

   He feebly wanted to get out of this, away from clucking nurses and Dr. Crittenham's owlish peering and the horrible scrambled eggs and cold toast.

   1951, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 2, in World So Wide

   This owl imitated Trumpkin’s voice rather well, and there were sounds of owlish laughter all round.

   1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 4, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998

   Synonyms: owllike, owly, strigine

2. Wise and solemn.

   He stands precociously possessed of centuries of owlish wisdom.

   1874, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, page 87

   2 more examples

   […] their large black eyes scanned the drawings with the owlish look of wisdom peculiar to connoisseurs.

   1880, R. M. Ballantyne, Blown to Bits or, The Lonely Man of Rakata

   I feel, indeed, that something very ponderous, and solemn, and authoritative, and learned, and wise, and owlish, and erudite, ought to be said.

   1914, Julian Leonard Street, Abroad at home; American ramblings, observations, and adventure of Julian Street

3. Stupid; dull-looking.

   "Any more big words coming?" he asked. "Owlish, stupid, brutal, unloving? That's you all over. Have you murdered anybody?"

   2025 April 7, E. F. Benson, Peter, Namaskar Books

   1 more example

   But, indeed, the young Venetian is, at that age when all men are owlish, ignorant, and vapid, the most owlish, ignorant, and vapid man in the world.

   1874, William Dean Howells, Venetian Life, page 370