aquiline

[ak-wuh-lahyn, -lin]

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adjective

(of the nose) shaped like an eagle's beak; hooked.

of or like the eagle.

Origin of aquiline

1640–50; (< F) < Latin aquilīnus. See Aquila, -ine¹

Related formsaq·ui·lin·i·ty

[ak-wuh-lin-i-tee] /ˌæk wəˈlɪn ɪ ti/, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for aquiline

prominent

Examples from the Web for aquiline

Contemporary Examples of aquiline

Aquiline nose, face long and aristocratic, voice deep and vibrant.
Mel Brooks Is Always Funny and Often Wise in This 1975 Playboy Interview
Alex Belth
February 16, 2014

Historical Examples of aquiline

His nose was aquiline, his forehead high and square, his chin massive.
Henry Dunbar
M. E. Braddon
There was something so unyielding in the keen, aquiline nose and pointed chin.
The Golden Woman
Ridgwell Cullum
Her eyes were large and deeply blue; her nose small, but high and aquiline.
Alroy
Benjamin Disraeli
But except for the accident that both outlines were aquiline, they had little in common.
The Innocence of Father Brown
G. K. Chesterton
An aquiline nose is one hooked like the beak which belongs to an eagle.
Orthography
Elmer W. Cavins

British Dictionary definitions for aquiline

aquiline

adjective

(of a nose) having the curved or hooked shape of an eagle's beak

of or resembling an eagle

Word Origin for aquiline

C17: from Latin aquilīnus, from aquila eagle

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for aquiline

adj.

"curved like an eagle's beak," 1640s, originally in English in reference to long, hooked noses, from Latin aquilinus "of or like an eagle," from aquila "eagle," of uncertain origin, usually explained as "the dark bird;" cf. aquilus "blackish, of the color of darkness."