dove-like

See also: dovelike

English

Adjective

dove-like (comparative more dove-like, superlative most dove-like)

1. Alternative form of dovelike.
   • 1635, John Donne, His parting from her:

     Yet Love, thou'rt blinder then thy self in this, / To vex my Dove-like friend for my amiss […] .

   • a. 1764, John Byrom, “An Answer to some Enquiries, concerning the Author’s Opinion of a Sermon preached at⸺ upon the Operation of the Holy Spirit”, in Miscellaneous Poems, Manchester: […] J. Harrop, published 1773, page 204:

     While he went on, and learnedly perplext / The genuine Meaning of his choſen Text, / I caſt my Eyes above him, and explor’d / The Dove-like Form upon the ſounding Board. / That Bird, thought I, was put there as a Sign / What Kind of Spirit guides a good Divine: […]

   • 1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter V, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 118:

     She had her pets as well as he, and her life and that of her future partner promised to be as dove-like as possible.

   • 1914, Thomas Allibone Janvier, At the Casa Napoleon, page 140:

     As she looked at this bunch of too-full-blown roses, and realized the message that it was intended delicately to convey, the dove-like and olive-branching sentiments departed from her breast—and in their place came sentiments compounded of daggers and bow-strings and very poisonous bowls!