hourglass
- having a notably slim or narrow waist, midsection, or joining segment: She has an hourglass figure.
Origin of hourglass
Related Words for hourglass
alarm, timer, timepiece, clock, hourglass, metronome, dial, watch, chronometer, calendar, chronograph, repeater, pendulum, horologe, chronoscope, gnomon, sundial, stopwatch, clepsydra, tattlerExamples from the Web for hourglass
Contemporary Examples of hourglass
There were bold minidresses with molded bodices that exaggerated an hourglass figure.
Sometimes his leather jackets were sporty and rakish, at others they were sculpted into prim, hourglass shapes.
Historical Examples of hourglass
The marble was but roughly hewn, in lines that held the suggestion of an hourglass.
A Bookful of GirlsAnna Fuller
There is a good oak pulpit, with hourglass holder, and some heavy 15th-cent.
SomersetG.W. Wade and J.H. Wade
To calculate it one must reckon a century for every turn of the hourglass.
John L. Stoddard's Lectures, Vol. 10 (of 10)John L. Stoddard
At the sound the bearded old man raises his sceptre, opens his mouth, and turns an hourglass.
Christopher and the ClockmakersSara Ware Bassett
I think an hourglass running out would help the notion; perhaps her little tilings upon his knee, or in his hand.
The Letters of Charles DickensCharles Dickens
hourglass
- a device consisting of two transparent chambers linked by a narrow channel, containing a quantity of sand that takes a specified time to trickle to one chamber from the other
- (modifier) well-proportioned with a small waistan hourglass figure
Word Origin and History for hourglass
1510s, from hour + glass. Used 19c. in a variety of technical and scientific senses to describe the shape; reference to women's bodies is attested by 1897.
Men condemn corsets in the abstract, and are sometimes brave enough to insist that the women of their households shall be emancipated from them; and yet their eyes have been so generally educated to the approval of the small waist, and the hourglass figure, that they often hinder women who seek a hygienic style of dress. [Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, "The Story of My Life," 1898]