ferine
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of ferine
1530–40; < Latin ferīnus, equivalent to fer ( a ) a wild animal (noun use of feminine of ferus wild) + -īnus -ine 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In that moment, she was a throw-back of a million years, and through her veins fumed the ferine blood of her paleolithic forebears.
From The Gun-Brand by Hendryx, James B. (James Beardsley)
Who, within his inner consciousness, does not feel that same ferine, savage man struggling against the stern, adamantine bonds of morality and decorum?
From Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates; fiction, fact & fancy concerning the buccaneers & marooners of the Spanish main by Pyle, Howard
Unde nostra ætate neminem ferine musicum invenias, qui non omni redundat vitiorum genere.
From Jerome Cardan A Biographical Study by Waters, W. G. (William George)
"Old longings nomadic leap, Chafing at custom's chain; Again from its brumal sleep Wakens the ferine strain."
From The Call of the Wild by London, Jack
We killed some wild ferine creatures at the foot of these hills; but, except two things, like to nothing that we ever saw before, we met with nothing that was fit to eat.
From The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton by Defoe, Daniel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
