Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or resembling a peacock.
  • adjective Resembling a peacock's tail in color, design, or iridescence.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to, resembling, or characteristic of a peacock; pavonian.
  • Resembling a peacock's tail in iridescence.
  • noun Peacock's-tail tarnish; the iridescent luster found on some ores and metallic products.

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

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Like, or pertaining to, the genus Pavo.
  • adjective Characteristic of a peacock; resembling the tail of a peacock, as in colors; iridescent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the genus Pavo or its sub-family Pavoninae, including the peafowl.
  • adjective Possessing the coloring or iridescence of a peacock feather.
  • adjective Resembling the tail of a peacock.
  • noun Tarnish found on some ores and metals which resembles the tail feathers of a peacock.
  • noun Any bird from the sub-family Pavoninæ.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin pāvōnīnus, from pāvō, pāvōn-, peacock.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin pāvōnīnus, from pāvō ("peacock").

Support

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Examples

  • Here Cooney calls Peter Osgood "pavonine", which my dictionary tells me means "of or resembling a peacock".

    Chelsea players and my vocabulary 2005

  • Here Cooney calls Peter Osgood "pavonine", which my dictionary tells me means "of or resembling a peacock".

    April 2005 2005

  • Here Cooney calls Peter Osgood "pavonine", which my dictionary tells me means "of or resembling a peacock".

    Archive 2005-04-01 2005

  • Scarce one of us domestic birds but imitates the lanky, pavonine strut, and shrill, genteel scream.

    The Book of Snobs 2006

  • We made a general reconnaisance (December 27th) of a place whence specimens of pavonine quartz had come to hand.

    The Land of Midian 2003

  • It suggested Thecla's book, in which I had read it; and that, in turn, the great volume of pavonine leather the old Autarch had shown me when I had asked him the way to the garden, when he, having been told of me, supposed that I had arrived to replace him and would go to plead for Urth at once.

    The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987

  • A quick twist took Agia out of her pavonine gown; it lay about her brown, dusty feet like a heap of precious stones.

    The Shadow of the Torturer Wolfe, Gene 1980

  • She wore a pavonine brocade gown of amazing richness and raggedness, and as I watched her, the sun touched a rent just below her waist, turning the skin there to palest gold.

    The Shadow of the Torturer Wolfe, Gene 1980

  • These things with tales of sombre clouds and shining skies and whisperings of strange creatures dancing timidly in pavonine twilights, he traced upon the ivory keys of his instrument and the world was richer for a poet.

    Chopin : the Man and His Music James Huneker 1890

  • The bas-reliefs on this low screen are groups of peacocks and lions, two face to face on each panel, rich and fantastic beyond description, though not expressive of very accurate knowledge either of leonine or pavonine forms.

    Stones of Venice [introductions] John Ruskin 1859

Comments

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  • From the OED:

    (a.) Resembling the neck or tail of a peacock in colouring or iridescence.

    1991 R. CONDON Final Addiction 211

    He was put down on a beach which overlooked a pavonine sea on which slumped the guilty tanker, Bergquist, impaled on its villainous reef.

    June 28, 2007

  • This word was chosen as Wordnik word of the day.

    November 11, 2009

  • interesting.

    April 27, 2011