Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or characteristic of bears or a bear.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- In entomology, thickly clothed with long, bristle-like, erect hairs: applied especially to certain lepidopterous larvæ.
- n. A bear; any member of the family Ursidæ.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of bears.
- adj. entomology, of caterpillars Covered in stiff bristles.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to a bear; resembling a bear.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of or relating to or similar to bears
Etymologies
- Mid 16th century, from Latin ursinus, adjectival form of ursus ("bear"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin ursīnus, from ursus, bear; see r̥tko- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“PS: I almost called this “Waltzing Bear Watch,” except that this particular ursine is waltzing pretty well by any reasonable standard.”
Bloom Off Of The Rose Watch, Mark Knoller edition. | RedState
“He stopped to browse, and, after a few minutes’ immersion in ursine animatronics with names like Smarty Bear, Gabby Bear, and Heart-To-Heart Bear, he crowned one of them his favorite.”
“Of these animals the most considerable are seals; being of that sort which is called the ursine seal.”
Narrative of the Voyages Round The World, Performed by Captain James Cook
“From what we can see, it could be an animal of what your human friends call the ursine species, Khornya, the sort that is heavily furred and may stand on two legs or four. ”
“John has also worked with the costumes in "ursine" scale from the Tony Award winning shows Wicked, You're A Good Man,”
“whats that odd polka-dot growth on her kitty? some kind of ursine std?”
“Hunched over in brown janitorial coveralls, they used their hands to gather new ursine artifacts straight from the source: clumps of fibrous, multicolored panda poop.”
“Next year sees a new Hot Chip album, as well as the debut album from his other project, 2 Bears; their brand of electro-house is infinitely less throwaway than Goddard and collaborator Raf Rundell's penchant for ursine costumes suggests.”
“Why, this ursine menace has even made a mockery of our English language phonemes!”
“Such is the intensity of the connection between Katie and her ursine interloper that the dinner party she is in charge of has faded into the background.”
The Guardian: The Hard Sell: Birds Eye Baked To Perfection Fish
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ursine’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery-u
from phrontistery.info
uxorious, uxorial, uvid, uvelloid, uvala, utriform, utriculiform, utricle, utricide, utraquist, utinam, utilitarianism and 175 more...
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Not 250 Spelling Words Again
Yet more spelling words for intermediate to advanced spellers.
ihi, kyoodle, heimin, feis, menarche, cordwainer, gherao, zythum, accidie, anastomosis, boustrophedon, oleum and 238 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Animal Descriptors
Do any of your friends eat like a pig? Sly like a fox? Fast as a cheetah? Maybe these words describe them better
erinaceous, alaudine, phocine, porcine, accipritine, acarine, alopecoid, anatine, anguine, anopheline, apian, arietine and 80 more...
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Cold comfort farm again
cowdling, snoot, snood, scullion, dormer, mullion, kith, scranlet, teazel, whickering, loafing, dissever and 27 more...
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•Specific Wee, Or Sounds Like Specifi...
I'm making this list under duress by bilby. See comments on Specific Excrement and May or May Not Be Specific But Definitely Is Not Excrement.
If you really want to see them, I mean.inspissate, pissabed, premarin, lotium, wee, epistle, piston, haematuria, melanuria, fairy piss, piscina, pissant and 25 more...
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Favorite adjectives
ovine, piscine, ursine, lupine, murine, leonine, elephantine, porcine, aquiline, saccharine, serpentine, equine and 3 more...
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Awesome biological adjectives
vespine, virulent, viviparous, vulpine, vulturine, xeromorphic, ursine, ungulate, terricolous, sylvan, setaceous, sciurine and 14 more...
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animals strike curious poses
the asethetic of an animal... animal adjectives
corvine, pavonine, equine, bovine, musteline, myrmecine, ursine, apic, ranine, vulpine, vespine, pteropine and 20 more...
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marginalia
exuberance, potsherds, earthbound, marcher, märchen, pastiche, transliterated, crocodile, oxbridge, jejune, publican, antithesis and 143 more...
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Cold Comfort Farm
From the novel by Stella Gibbons
tyro, bustle, locust years, lambency, mere, berg, fen, bilious, cataclysm, flapdoodle, vulgar, serener and 98 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ursine.
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