| / English Dictionary |
MASCULINE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A gender that refers chiefly (but not exclusively) to males or to objects classified as male
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("masculine" is a kind of...):
gender; grammatical gender (a grammatical category in inflected languages governing the agreement between nouns and pronouns and adjectives; in some languages it is quite arbitrary but in Indo-European languages it is usually based on sex or animateness)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Associated with men and not with women
Classified under:
Similar:
butch; macho (used of men; markedly masculine in appearance or manner)
male; manful; manlike; manly; virile (characteristic of a man)
mannish (characteristic of a man as distinguished from a woman)
Also:
manful; manlike; manly (possessing qualities befitting a man)
male (being the sex (of plant or animal) that produces gametes (spermatozoa) that perform the fertilizing function in generation)
masculine (of grammatical gender)
Antonym:
feminine (associated with women and not with men)
Derivation:
masculinity (the trait of behaving in ways considered typical for men)
masculinity (the properties characteristic of the male sex)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Of grammatical gender
Classified under:
Also:
masculine (associated with men and not with women)
Antonym:
feminine; neuter (of grammatical gender)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(music or poetry) ending on an accented beat or syllable
Example:
the masculine rhyme of 'annoy, enjoy'
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
accented; stressed (bearing a stress or accent)
Domain category:
music (an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner)
Context examples:
He did not dream how ardent and masculine his gaze was, nor that the warm flame of it was affecting the alchemy of her spirit.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
As I have said, in the masculine sense his was a beautiful face.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
His features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian lip and arched nose, his complexion olive, his countenance erect, his body and limbs well proportioned, all his motions graceful, and his deportment majestic.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
So busy was she with her card full of refractory figures that she did not observe a newcomer, who entered without stopping the vehicle, till a masculine voice said, Good morning, Miss March, and, looking up, she beheld one of Laurie's most elegant college friends.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
But on Miss Mills observing, with despondency, that it were well indeed for some hearts if this were so, I explained that I begged leave to restrict the observation to mortals of the masculine gender.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I had a theoretical reverence and homage for beauty, elegance, gallantry, fascination; but had I met those qualities incarnate in masculine shape, I should have known instinctively that they neither had nor could have sympathy with anything in me, and should have shunned them as one would fire, lightning, or anything else that is bright but antipathetic.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And through the swaying, palpitant vision, as through a fairy mirage, he stared at the real woman, sitting there and talking of literature and art. He listened as well, but he stared, unconscious of the fixity of his gaze or of the fact that all that was essentially masculine in his nature was shining in his eyes.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
He was certainly a handsome man—beautiful in the masculine sense.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Being a domestic man, John decidedly missed the wifely attentions he had been accustomed to receive, but as he adored his babies, he cheerfully relinquished his comfort for a time, supposing with masculine ignorance that peace would soon be restored.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
But Dora's aunts soon agreed to regard my aunt as an eccentric and somewhat masculine lady, with a strong understanding; and although my aunt occasionally ruffled the feathers of Dora's aunts, by expressing heretical opinions on various points of ceremony, she loved me too well not to sacrifice some of her little peculiarities to the general harmony.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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