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aquiline

[ak-wuh-lahyn, -lin]
See more synonyms for aquiline on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. (of the nose) shaped like an eagle's beak; hooked.
  2. of or like the eagle.
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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. 2018

Related Words

prominent

Examples from the Web for aquiline

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • 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.

  • 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
  1. (of a nose) having the curved or hooked shape of an eagle's beak
  2. of or resembling an eagle
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Word Origin

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."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper