owlish
/ˈaʊlɪʃ
/adjective
1Like an owl, especially in appearing to be solemn or wise: he had an owlish and solemn air...
- And if his features have recently seemed to take on a new youthfulness, his is still a face etched with experience, slowly hardening into the same benignly owlish countenance you see in photographs of his long-departed father, Jim.
- From 1955 to 1963, he was Chairman of the National Bank, an Irish clearing bank, again confounding those who took his owlish, academic demeanour at face value.
- Physically, she brilliantly embodied the shrewd, sharp-eyed, owlish spinster, while also conveying her intuitive acumen and razor-sharp mind.
1.1(Of glasses) resembling the large round eyes of an owl: her owlish glasses made her look studious...
- Her eyes are huge, like something you would expect to see magnified behind thick owlish glasses, lovely and bright blue, the sapphire enhanced wonderfully by her ivory skin and dyed black bob.
- At one stage he seemed to become almost as well-known for his flamboyant dress sense - the wide-brimmed hats, the peroxide hair, the big owlish glasses - as for his paintings.
- I was pulling a book from the shelf when I heard the tinkle of the bell over the door, and before I knew it, Matt's aunt was standing in front of me, peering up at me through her wide, owlish glasses.
Derivatives
owlishly
/ adverb ...- ‘My lecture is on something I think about a lot,’ says Byatt, her eyes big and owlishly attractive.
- He blinked owlishly, realizing his situation.
- Ren blinked owlishly into the dark at the sound of his name.
owlishness
- It is more and more unusual for U.S. writers to try to produce literature which is serious without solemnity, entertaining without shallowness, intelligent without owlishness.
- They will remember his kindliness, his moodiness, his scorn, his patience, his owlishness, the bulk of his physical presence with its powers of intimidation and tact.