war hawk
war hawk noun: a proponent of war or military intrusiveness.
Noun
war hawk (plural war hawks)
- A proponent of war or military intrusiveness.
- Suddenly, John R. Bolton, the conservative war hawk and favorite villain of the left, is the toast of Senate Democrats, the last, best hope to prove their abuse-of-power case against President Trump.2020 January 28, Peter Baker, “For John Bolton, an ‘Upside-Down World’ After Trump Revelation”, in The New York Times
- But critics of Washington’s hyper-aggressive foreign policy need to understand that the flight of many of the worst war hawks from the Republican Party does not mean the GOP has returned to its non-interventionist roots.2024 October 17, Connor Okeeffe, “Beware of war hawks in ‘America First’ clothing”, in The Orange County Register
- An eagle.
Synonyms of war hawk
Forms of war hawk
| plural | war hawks |
|---|---|
| alternative form | warhawk |
Origin of war hawk
Late 18th c., often attributed to Virginian Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke, but no written evidence exists. Popularized in debates concerning the War of 1812. Sense "eagle" probably a calque of Old English guþhafoc
Questions about war hawk
- What does war hawk mean?
- War hawk means a proponent of war or military intrusiveness.
- What part of speech is war hawk?
- War hawk is a noun.
- What is the plural of war hawk?
- The plural of war hawk is war hawks.
Words near war hawk in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: war hawk (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:
Cite this entry: “war hawk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/war_hawk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.