LINEAMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lineament mean? 

• LINEAMENT (noun)
  The noun LINEAMENT has 2 senses:

1. a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something

2. the characteristic parts of a person's face: eyes and nose and mouth and chin

  Familiarity information: LINEAMENT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LINEAMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

character; lineament; quality

Context example:

the radical character of our demands

Hypernyms ("lineament" is a kind of...):

attribute; dimension; property (a construct whereby objects or individuals can be distinguished)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lineament"):

texture (the essential quality of something)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The characteristic parts of a person's face: eyes and nose and mouth and chin

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

feature; lineament

Context example:

his lineaments were very regular

Hypernyms ("lineament" is a kind of...):

body part (any part of an organism such as an organ or extremity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lineament"):

chin; mentum (the protruding part of the lower jaw)

brow; forehead (the part of the face above the eyes)

temple (the flat area on either side of the forehead)

cheek (either side of the face below the eyes)

jowl (a fullness and looseness of the flesh of the lower cheek and jaw (characteristic of aging))

jaw (the bones of the skull that frame the mouth and serve to open it; the bones that hold the teeth)

Holonyms ("lineament" is a part of...):

face; human face (the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear)

 Context examples 

Blind as he was, smiles played over his face, joy dawned on his forehead: his lineaments softened and warmed.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Amid a rolling cloud of dust, I caught a glimpse of a pale, agitated face—a face with horror in every lineament, the mouth open, the eyes staring wildly in front.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Years have elapsed, since I had an opportunity of ocularly perusing the lineaments, now familiar to the imaginations of a considerable portion of the civilized world.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As every person called up made exactly the same appearance he had done in the world, it gave me melancholy reflections to observe how much the race of human kind was degenerated among us within these hundred years past; how the pox, under all its consequences and denominations had altered every lineament of an English countenance; shortened the size of bodies, unbraced the nerves, relaxed the sinews and muscles, introduced a sallow complexion, and rendered the flesh loose and rancid.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He might well be a little shocked at the irregularity of my lineaments, his own being so harmonious.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Even now, as I commence my task, his full-toned voice swells in my ears; his lustrous eyes dwell on me with all their melancholy sweetness; I see his thin hand raised in animation, while the lineaments of his face are irradiated by the soul within.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Having thus answered the only objection that can ever be raised against me as a traveller, I here take a final leave of all my courteous readers, and return to enjoy my own speculations in my little garden at Redriff; to apply those excellent lessons of virtue which I learned among the Houyhnhnms; to instruct the Yahoos of my own family, is far as I shall find them docible animals; to behold my figure often in a glass, and thus, if possible, habituate myself by time to tolerate the sight of a human creature; to lament the brutality to Houyhnhnms in my own country, but always treat their persons with respect, for the sake of my noble master, his family, his friends, and the whole Houyhnhnm race, whom these of ours have the honour to resemble in all their lineaments, however their intellectuals came to degenerate.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I had nowhere seen such faces as theirs: and yet, as I gazed on them, I seemed intimate with every lineament.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My horror and astonishment are not to be described, when I observed in this abominable animal, a perfect human figure: the face of it indeed was flat and broad, the nose depressed, the lips large, and the mouth wide; but these differences are common to all savage nations, where the lineaments of the countenance are distorted, by the natives suffering their infants to lie grovelling on the earth, or by carrying them on their backs, nuzzling with their face against the mothers’ shoulders.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)