pavonine

comparative more pavonine · superlative most pavonine

1. Of or pertaining to the genus Pavo or its family Pavonidae, including the peafowl.
2. Possessing the coloring or iridescence of a peacock feather.

   362. Massive BORNITE, having a pavonine purple tarnish; with dolomite. Kenmare mine, Co. Kerry, Ireland. 363. Massive BORNITE, having a pavonine purple tarnish; with malachite and ochre.

   1883, Geological Survey of India. Museum, Frederick Richard Mallet, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Minerals in the Geological Museum, Calcutta, page 42

   3 more examples

   These rocks are a schist, and abound with the copper pyrites, which occasionally exhibits a pavonine tarnish. The schist is sometimes of a very deep gray colour, and is then the most rich in metal; sometimes also it has the green[…]

   1817, Anne Plumptre, Narrative of a Residence in Ireland During the Summer of 1814, and that of 1815, page 184

   It resembled from a distance porphyry, while much of it had a pavonine lustre, like the argentiferous galena of the Silver States in North America. The great weight suggested one mass of metal, and part of it had evidently been[…]

   1878, Sir Richard Francis Burton, The Gold-mines of Midian and the Ruined Midianite Cities: A Fortnight's Tour in North-western Arabia, page 218

   In D. kahli the blue of the wings on the upper side is deep pavonine blue, or intense cobalt, confined on the anterior wing to a broad patch above the lower margin near the lower angle, and not invading the cell;[…]

   1921, American Museum of Natural History, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, page 191

3. Showy, like a peacock's tail; exhibiting vanity.

   A list of acknowledgements can be a pavonine affair, an excuse more to flaunt than to thank. I have tried to avoid that here. But I must thank my excellent colleagues at QMUL,[…]

   2021 December 14, Anthony Ossa-Richardson, A History of Ambiguity, Princeton University Press, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   ... leaving its present body would find or construct another according to its chief intrinsic qualities and forces, whether those were a leonine magnanimity of courage, a vulpine subtlety of cunning, or a pavonine strut of vanity .

   1864, William Rounseville Alger, A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life: With a Complete Bibliography of the Subject, page 479

   He had me all to himself; whilst his wife abased herself before my companion, he made up for the abasement by a truly pavonine strut and spread of his feathers. Amongst the few items of fact that floated on the torrent of his [lecture were...]

   1901, John Macmillan Brown, Riallaro: The Archipelago of Exiles, page 223

1. uncountableTarnish found on some ores and metals which resembles the tail feathers of a peacock.
2. uncountableAny bird from the family Pavonidae.