PHYSIOGNOMY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does physiognomy mean? 

• PHYSIOGNOMY (noun)
  The noun PHYSIOGNOMY has 1 sense:

1. the human face ('kisser' and 'smiler' and 'mug' are informal terms for 'face' and 'phiz' is British)

  Familiarity information: PHYSIOGNOMY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PHYSIOGNOMY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The human face ('kisser' and 'smiler' and 'mug' are informal terms for 'face' and 'phiz' is British)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Synonyms:

countenance; kisser; mug; phiz; physiognomy; smiler; visage

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

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

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

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

pudding-face; pudding face (a large fat human face)

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

human head (the head of a human being)

 Context examples 

Then, in a lower tone, but still loud enough for me to hear, "I noticed her; I am a judge of physiognomy, and in hers I see all the faults of her class."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I had now an opportunity of observing him, and found him of a very marked physiognomy.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

This address caused a considerable change in the physiognomy of my own auditor.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

What my aunt saw, or did not see, I defy the science of physiognomy to have made out, without her own consent.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She has a peculiar face; fleshless and haggard as it is, I rather like it; and when in good health and animated, I can fancy her physiognomy would be agreeable.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I attended the lectures and cultivated the acquaintance of the men of science of the university, and I found even in M. Krempe a great deal of sound sense and real information, combined, it is true, with a repulsive physiognomy and manners, but not on that account the less valuable.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He had been looking two minutes at the fire, and I had been looking the same length of time at him, when, turning suddenly, he caught my gaze fastened on his physiognomy.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But I liked his physiognomy even less than before: it struck me as being at the same time unsettled and inanimate.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You looked very much puzzled, Miss Eyre; and though you are not pretty any more than I am handsome, yet a puzzled air becomes you; besides, it is convenient, for it keeps those searching eyes of yours away from my physiognomy, and busies them with the worsted flowers of the rug; so puzzle on.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

These opinions he delivered in a few words, in a quiet, low voice; and added, after a pause, in the tone of a man little accustomed to expansive comment, Rather an unusual physiognomy; certainly, not indicative of vulgarity or degradation.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)