Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In ichthyology, spine-like; bearing spines.
  • Pertaining to or resembling plants of the genus Acanthus. In architecture, ornamented with acanthus-leaves.
  • noun In architecture, a fillet or other molding ornamented with the acanthus-leaf. Buchanan, Dict. Sci. See cut under Acanthus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or resembling, the plant acanthus.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin acanthinus, from acanthus + English -ine ("relating to").

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Examples

  • Man and morality, however, disappearing at intervals, the acanthine capitals have a kind of later Venetian beauty about them, as the Venetian birds also, the conventional peacocks, or birds wholly of fantasy, amid the long fantastic foliage.

    Miscellaneous Studies; a series of essays Walter Pater 1866

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