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  1. ursine love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Of or characteristic of bears or a bear.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Of or pertaining to a bear or bears: as, an ursine genus; related to the bear; arctoid: as, the ursine series of Carnivora; resembling a bear or what relates to a bear: as, an ursine walk.
  2. In entomology, thickly clothed with long, bristle-like, erect hairs: applied especially to certain lepidopterous larvæ.
  3. n. A bear; any member of the family Ursidæ.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of bears.
  2. adj. entomology, of caterpillars Covered in stiff bristles.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Of or pertaining to a bear; resembling a bear.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. of or relating to or similar to bears

Etymologies

  1. Mid 16th century, from Latin ursinus, adjectival form of ursus ("bear"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin ursīnus, from ursus, bear; see r̥tko- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘ursine’.

Comments

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  • Louises A slow secret smile swept into Harkaway,s face. It was wolfish, ursine, vulpine. Cold Comfort Farm. Feb 22, 2013

  • chained_bear Stephen Colbert would understand. Jan 16, 2009

  • reesetee *hoping that's a rhetorical question* Jan 16, 2009

  • chained_bear It isn't entirely un-noun-able. You'd say ursa, I imagine.

    I occasionally, when half-asleep, confuse this word with Ursuline. Nuns, bears... what's the difference? Jan 16, 2009

  • evin290 All of the following, which are usually adjectives, can be used as nouns: canine, feline, equine, bovine, murine, ovine. But why are the other '-ine' adjectives (ursine being my favorite) un-noun-able? This really bothers me...
    May 20, 2007

  • emily_morine (Grizzly) Bear-like. Dec 8, 2006

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‘ursine’ has been looked up 2668 times, loved by 9 people, added to 51 lists, commented on 6 times, and has a Scrabble score of 6.