from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
adjective Of, resembling, or characteristic of a fox.
adjective Cunning; clever.
from The Century Dictionary.
Of or pertaining to a fox; technically, resembling the fox as a member of tho Vulpinæ; related to the foxes; alopecoid: distinguished from lupine or thoöid.
Resembling a fox in traits or disposition; also, characteristic of the fox; foxy; cunning; crafty.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
adjective Of or pertaining to the fox; resembling the fox; foxy; cunning; crafty; artful.
adjective (Zoöl.) an Australian carnivorous marsupial (Phalangista vulpina syn. Trichosurus vulpina); -- called also vulpine phalanger, and vulpine opossum.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
adjective Pertaining to a fox.
adjective Having the characteristics of a fox, foxlike; cunning.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
adjective resembling or characteristic of a fox
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Latin vulpīnus, from vulpēs, fox; see wl̥p-ē- in Indo-European roots.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Latin vulpinus ("foxy, fox-like"), from vulpēs, earlier volpēs ("fox"), from Proto-Indo-European *wl(o)p- (“fox”). Cognate with Welsh llywarn ("fox"), Ancient Greek ἀλώπηξ (alōpēks), Armenian աղուէս (aluēs), Albanian dhelpër, Lithuanian vilpišỹs ("wildcat"), Sanskrit lopāśa ("jackal, fox").
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Examples
I remember that as we said good-bye, there was that in her smile that recalled the vulpine complacency of Mona Lisa, the
The vulpine Evtushenko, although an accomplished technician and a past mistress of Lock's supercharged style, is never an autonomous being, but is always manipulated, shaped and turned by men.
Lyons père was a young lawyer writing a weekly column for the Sunday English-language page of the Yiddish Forward when he won a Post contest to find a challenger to Walter Winchell, the vulpine king of newspaper gossip.
And when he later threatens the recalcitrant Goneril that her sister will "with her nails flay thy wolfish visage", he brandishes his own vulpine claw in her face.
All traces of courtly refinement and laconic humour had vanished; he was now callous and vulpine, the renegade spirit of the hoodlum streets returning to his lost playground.
jaime_d commented on the word vulpine
from Ruskin.
October 1, 2007
mechanolatry commented on the word vulpine
Also: Cunning; clever.
(n. vulpinism)
January 29, 2009
Louises commented on the word vulpine
A slow secret smile swept into Harkaway,s face. It was wolfish, ursine, vulpine. Cold Comfort Farm.
February 23, 2013
bilby commented on the word vulpine
A slow snark crept across bilby's face when he read prose that was asinine, asinine, asinine. Cold Vomit Repository.
February 23, 2013