madonnalike

English

Adjective

madonnalike (comparative more madonnalike, superlative most madonnalike)

1. rare spelling of Madonna-like
   • 1925, “Adventure”, in The Calgary Stampede: A Story of the Canadian Plains Based on the Motion Picture Story by Raymond L. Schrock, New York, N.Y.: Jacobsen-Hodgkinson-Corporation, page 6:

     Her hair was raven black with a tantalizing suggestion of wave which relieved the oval face from the madonnalike look it had so often worn since her mother’s death.

   • 1931, ““Expensive Women” Proves Fine Starring Vehicle For Dolores Costello’s Return To Talkies: Warner Bros. Brilliant Modern Romance Which Opened At Strand Last Night Acclaimed By Large Audiences”, in Warner Bros. and Vitaphone: Talking Pictures, New York, N.Y., page nine:

     Miss [Dolores] Costello herself is more ethereally beautiful than ever, the madonnalike quality of her loveliness having been heightened by her motherhood.

   • 1946 September 28, “The Home: Courtship, Marriage and Children; By Evangelist John R. Rice, D.D., Litt.D.”, in The Sunday School Times, volume eighty-eight, number 39, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Sunday School Times Co., page 888 (24):

     Contains marriage certificate, family record, and madonnalike picture of author’s wife and baby.

   • 1955, Doris Shannon Garst, “A Treasure Found and a Treasure Won”, in James Bowie and His Famous Knife, New York, N.Y.: Julian Messner, Inc., published 1962, →LCCN, page 115:

     But through the veil he saw that beloved face, those madonnalike eyes radiant, and his heart was filled with an overwhelming joy.

   • 1956 January 23, “Film Pioneers’ Roll of Their Living Immortals”, in Life, volume 40, number 4, page 120:

     One of the earliest of all the silent screen stars, Norma Talmadge played the serene, madonnalike beauty with unseen fires seething within—a sort of pre-World War I Grace Kelly.

   • 1960 December, Skulda V. Baner, “A Hollywood madonna”, in American Girl, volume XLIII, number 12, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., page 43:

     They had been struck by the madonnalike picture of Aunt Greta with the little Mexican boy.

   • 1962, Niels C[hristian] Nielsen, Jr., “The Buddhists”, in The Layman Looks at World Religions, St. Louis, Mo.: The Bethany Press, →LCCN, page 60:

     In China, this figure was transformed into a goddess of mercy, Kwan-Yin. Represented in a variety of gracious postures, often with a child, she expresses a madonnalike maternal feeling.

   • 1969, Etienne Leroux, “Early History”, in Amy Starke, transl., The Third Eye, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →LCCN, pages 45–46:

     The fact that sexual perversion and all kinds of depravity were mentioned in connection with the sabotage group was difficult to reconcile with her madonnalike appearance and high ideals.

   • 1977 January, Harold Norse, “The Nun’s Tail”, in Hustler, page 90:

     He stood beside her with a pulsing hard-on, looking down at her madonnalike face and figure, like a Botticelli Venus.

   • 1978, Martha E. Munzer, “Rounding It Out”, in Full Circle: Rounding Out a Life, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 80:

     Joanne’s womb is in excellent order and so is she. Her inner serenity shines through on her lovely, madonnalike face.

   • 1980, David Madsen, chapter 1, in Black Plume: The Suppressed Memoirs of Edgar Allan Poe, New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 16:

     Her deep black hair, pulled back from her forehead and gathered in a knot behind her head, gave full rein to her rounded, madonnalike face.

   • 1980, Janet Louise Roberts, Silver Jasmine, Warner Books, →ISBN, page 134:

     Her dark eyes were the same color as Florencia’s, but gentler, and her face had a madonnalike quality.

   • 1984 March 10, Marina LaPalma, “Paradoxes of Association and Object”, in Artweek, volume 15, number 10, page 5:

     Far less compelling than these sculptural pieces is Myth, a pencil drawing of a rounded, madonnalike head.

   • 1985, Virginia Wright Wexman, “The Human Subject: Horror and the Popular Tradition”, in Roman Polanski (Twayne’s Filmmakers Series; Warren French, editor), Boston, Mass.: Twayne Publishers, →ISBN, page 67:

     As several critics have noted, the movie’s final scene, with Rosemary in madonnalike attire receiving a foreigner bringing gifts, explicitly parodies the birth of Christ.

   • 1986, Aola Vandergriff, Devilwind: Jenny’s Story, Signet, New American Library, page 214:

     Jenny hadn’t really noticed before that the girl’s face was so beautiful. There was something serene, madonnalike, about her.

   • 1988, Jane Taylor, Leah Taylor, “The Itineraries”, in Fielding’s Literary Africa, New York, N.Y.: Fielding Travel Books ℅ William Morrow & Company, Inc., →ISBN, section “Prelude: Lost Cities of Africa by Basil Davidson”, page 46:

     The loose kanga can be worn as a shawl, draped over the legs when sitting down to protect the ankles and feet, and even madonnalike over the head.

   • 1989, Jack Higgins (pen name; [Henry] “Harry” Patterson), Memoirs of a Dance-Hall Romeo, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 50:

     Everything about her was wrong. The neat clothes, the madonnalike face, that beautifully modulated voice, and yet, when I took her in my arms, my heart started to pound, my stomach contracted, the inside of my mouth went dry.

   • 1989, Jerome D. Oremland, “Michelangelo, His Family, and Julius II”, in Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling: A Psychoanalytic Study of Creativity (Applied Psychoanalysis Series, edited by the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis; monograph 2), Madison, Conn.: International Universities Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 87:

     In the first paper it was suggested that Jesus’ dead body being returned to his mother for a last mournful reunion is given deepened emotional force by the madonnalike face of the mother.

   • 1993, Stuart B[etts] McIver, “Three Friends…And a Foe”, in Hemingway’s Key West, Sarasota, Fla.: Pineapple Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 54:

     “Her grave beauty had a madonnalike quality accentuated by a middle part in smoothed-back blond hair,” Ernest’s brother Leicester [Hemingway] wrote of her [Jane Mason].

   • 1995, Merete Leonhardt-Lupa, “A Mother's Sexuality”, in A Mother Is Born: Preparing for Motherhood During Pregnancy, Westport, Conn., London: Bergin & Garvey, →ISBN, page 113:

     No, women of today are not likely to regard the madonnalike woman as a sexual being. We are more likely to recognize her maternal endowments, a role many women have serious doubts about. It is said to be this woman's selfless devotion that turns her children into well-adjusted adults—and we can only commiserate with her heavy burden. Thus, the madonnalike woman's fate is the same as the wild sexy woman's: So long! You are hopelessly prudish and passe.

   • 1996, Leslie Kirk Campbell, “Being Ourselves: Your Fourth Trimester”, in Journey Into Motherhood: Writing Your Way to Self-Discovery, New York, N.Y.: Riverhead Books, →ISBN, section 10 (Coming Out: Your Tenth Month), subsection 2 (The Madonna in Me), page 200:

     Your madonnalike relationship with your baby grows intuitively, innocently without your planning it or even noticing that it is happening.

   • 2000, Dennis McFarland, Singing Boy, Waterville, Me.: Thorndike Press, published 2001, →ISBN, page 285:

     Harry reached for the towel, draped it over his head, and clutched it under his chin, madonnalike.

   • 2001, A[llan] D[ouglass] Coleman, “Dust in the Wind: The Legacy of Dorothea Lange and Paul Schuster Taylor’s An American Exodus”, in Dorothea Lange: The Heart and Mind of a Photographer, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y., London: Bulfinch Press, Little, Brown and Company, published 2002, →ISBN, page 156:

     Although it does not appear therein, Migrant Mother hovers, madonnalike, over the larger project from which it emerged: […]

   • 2007, Stephanie Laurens, Beyond Seduction (A Bastion Club Novel), Avon, →ISBN, page 29:

     She smiled then, a gesture that lit up her face, transforming it from serenely madonnalike to glorious.