owlish
Syllables: owl·ish/ˈaʊlɪʃ/
owlish adjective: resembling or characteristic of an owl.
Adjective
owlish (comparative more owlish, superlative most owlish)
- Resembling or characteristic of an owl.
- "You're very right," he said, with owlish smugness, adjusting a waistcoat button that had come loose, and smoothing his cuffs.1914, Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, Chapter 26, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/fr100299.txt
- He feebly wanted to get out of this, away from clucking nurses and Dr. Crittenham's owlish peering and the horrible scrambled eggs and cold toast.1951, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 2, in World So Wide
- Wise and solemn.
- He stands precociously possessed of centuries of owlish wisdom.1874, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, page 87
- […] their large black eyes scanned the drawings with the owlish look of wisdom peculiar to connoisseurs.1880, R. M. Ballantyne, Blown to Bits or, The Lonely Man of Rakata
- Stupid; dull-looking.
- But, indeed, the young Venetian is, at that age when all men are owlish, ignorant, and vapid, the most owlish, ignorant, and vapid man in the world.1874, William Dean Howells, Venetian Life, page 370
- "Any more big words coming?" he asked. "Owlish, stupid, brutal, unloving? That's you all over. Have you murdered anybody?"2025 April 7, E. F. Benson, Peter, Namaskar Books
Examples of owlish in a sentence
- This owl imitated Trumpkin’s voice rather well, and there were sounds of owlish laughter all round.1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 4, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998:
- I feel, indeed, that something very ponderous, and solemn, and authoritative, and learned, and wise, and owlish, and erudite, ought to be said.1914, Julian Leonard Street, Abroad at home; American ramblings, observations, and adventure of Julian Street:
Synonyms of owlish
Forms of owlish
| comparative | more owlish |
|---|---|
| superlative | most owlish |
Origin of owlish
From owl + -ish.
Words formed from owlish
Questions about owlish
- What does owlish mean?
- Owlish means resembling or characteristic of an owl.
- How do you use owlish in a sentence?
- This owl imitated Trumpkin’s voice rather well, and there were sounds of owlish laughter all round.
- What part of speech is owlish?
- Owlish is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce owlish?
- Owlish is pronounced /ˈaʊlɪʃ/.
Words near owlish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: owlish (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.
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Cite this entry: “owlish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/owlish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.