statuesque

comparative more statuesque · superlative most statuesque

1. Resembling or characteristic of a statue.First known use 18th c.

   He was by no means a bad hero to look at, if such a thing were needed. His face was pale, melancholy, statuesque—and his large enthusiastic eyes, suggested a story and a secret—perhaps a horror.

   1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

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   We went out by his gate into the road, and there we made a minute examination of the statuesque passing traffic. The tops of the wheels and some of the legs of the horses of this char-a-banc, the end of the whip-lash and the lower jaw of the conductor — who was just beginning to yawn — were perceptibly in motion, but all the rest of the lumbering conveyance seemed still.

   1901, H. G. Wells, The New Accelerator

2. Immobile; motionless.

   I have known him to maintain this statuesque pose for as long as fifteen minutes[.]

   1951, Ambrose Pratt, The Lore of the Lyrebird, Melbourne: Robertson and Mullens, page 63

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   Both Cripps and Limpet were struck statuesque with a sudden apprehension of what was happening in Cripps's room, and Cripps, with a professional knowledge of the gloomy nature of Uncle Tinfish's eye, could feel it taking in the situation, including the conscientious nude, with dreadful intensity.

   1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 161

3. Elegantly tall, graceful, and attractive.First known use 19th c.

   Christy Turlington is a statuesque supermodel famous for her fashion ads.

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   The grand, handsome, and much younger Mrs. Nettles, […] has the nose and cheekbones of a Cherokee and is so black and statuesque in her muscularity and boneyness that she seems carved by an ax from an effulgent vein of coal.

   1974, Mark Smith, “Nymphomania”, in The Death of the Detective, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, book 1 (Prelude to Murder), page 78

   They were among West Germany’s first pop-culture exports after World War II, and their statuesque features made them a paparazzo’s dream as they emerged, one after the other, from a limousine at film premieres and fashion shows.

   2025 November 19, Clay Risen, “Alice and Ellen Kessler, ’60s Singing Sensations, Die at 89”, in The New York Times, →ISSN