adonise

adonise verb: to embellish or adorn, especially in order to improve the appearance of.

Verb (1)

adonise (third-person singular simple present adonises, present participle adonising, simple past and past participle adonised)

(transitive) To embellish or adorn, especially in order to improve the appearance of.
- Delighted with each other......we rambled....arm in arm......about the citron groves;.......and, when a mossy bank invited our repose...my charmer would weave garlands of flowers to adonise her shepherd ; ..........recline upon my arm..... and to the gentle lullaby of a murmuring stream..... sink...1804, Christoph Martin Wieland, Confessions in Elysium: Or, The Adventures of a Platonic, pages 73–74
- Formerly, if not exactly to the same extent at the present day, mineral substances were only made use of to adonise the complexion ; indeed, every composition is qualified with this name, whether it be white or red, which women, and even men (coxcombs), with a clear skin, subserve to embellish...1830, an old army surgeon, Economy of the hands and feet, fingers and toes, page 107
(intransitive) To enhance one's own appearance.
- Leaving a breath to swell his tradesmen's books, To adonise, to smile, and kill with looks;1820, Peter Bayley, Sketches from St. George's Fields, page 122
- Since I parted with Darnley, who went in to adonise, I believe, Cameron has been hindering me with acknowledgments and regrets.1859, Mrs. Octavius Freire Owen, Raised to the Peerage: A Novel, page 158

Adonise (third-person singular simple present Adonises, present participle Adonising, simple past and past participle Adonised)

(alternative) Alternative form of adonise.
- both male and female Adonise their tails in this manner, which gives them a remarkable appearance amongst all other birds.1828, Charles Waterton, B. Fellows, Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 & 1824
- He next tootled for half an hour upon a one-keyed flute, and then proceeded to Adonise. Notwithstanding all that some writers have said about a physical aristocracy, — an air of refinement,— which is perceptible under the veriest rags, I am entirely of the opinion, with Bob Acres in the Rivals...1845, The Asiatic journal and monthly miscellany - Volume 4, page 422

Of all the looming Negroes that Lincoln could have brought into the White House to adonise his cause, Johnson had been his choice, with the scuttling train of a monitor lizard.2013, Steven Douglas, Lincoln’s Bedsheet, →ISBN:
Whenever I find myself growing vapourish, I rouse myself, wash, and put on a clean shirt, brush my hair and clothes, tie my shoestrings neatly, and in fact adonise as I were going out.1891, John Keats (ed Sir Sidney Colvin), Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends, page 291:

third-person singular present	adonises
present participle	adonising
past participle	adonised
past	adonised
alternative form	Adonise
alternative form	adonize
alternative form	Adonize
third-person singular present	Adonises
present participle	Adonising
past participle	Adonised
past	Adonised

From Adonis + -ise.

What does adonise mean?: Adonise means to embellish or adorn, especially in order to improve the appearance of.
How do you use adonise in a sentence?: Of all the looming Negroes that Lincoln could have brought into the White House to adonise his cause, Johnson had been his choice, with the scuttling train of a monitor lizard.
What part of speech is adonise?: Adonise is a verb.
What is the past tense of adonise?: The past tense of adonise is adonised.

Adapted from Wiktionary: adonise (page history and authors); Adonise (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “adonise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/adonise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.