leonine1
/ˈliːənʌɪn
/adjective
Of or resembling a lion or lions: a handsome, leonine profile...
- Robert Graves, leonine, ascended grandly and delivered hilarious impromptu remarks before declaiming a poem.
- Both the horse and the hawk are unruly, the latter swirling its head around instead of waiting in obedient stillness, and the dogs have curiously rounded leonine heads.
- Does that mean he's supposed to be more edgy than his smiling, soft leonine friend?
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French, or from Latin leoninus, from leo, leon- 'lion'.
Leonine2
/ˈliːənʌɪn/adjective
1Relating to any of the popes named Leo, in particular denoting the part of Rome fortified by Leo IV (d.855).The Leonine revival of Thomism stressed the primacy of divine over natural law and gave the clerical reconquest of Christian civilization a philosophical rationale....
- The Leonine revival featured not only the harnessing of Thomas' thought to confront modernism, but as a necessary preparation, the modern editing of his sizeable corpus.
2 Prosody (Of medieval Latin verse) in hexameter or elegiac metre with internal rhyme.
2.1(Of English verse) with internal rhyme.
noun (Leonines) Prosody
Leonine verse.
Origin
Late Middle English: from the name Leo, from Latin leo 'lion'. Leonine (sense 2 of the adjective) may be from the name of a medieval poet, but his identity is not known.