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Pear-shaped   /pɛr-ʃeɪpt/   Listen
Pear-shaped

adjective
1.
Having a round shape tapered at one end.
2.
(of sounds) full and rich.  Synonyms: orotund, rotund, round.  "The rotund and reverberating phrase" , "Pear-shaped vowels"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Pear-shaped" Quotes from Famous Books



... remarks, looks like a brilliant egg in a scarlet nest.[9] The eyes are scattered over the dorsal surface of the creature's body, and are commonly situated just beneath the skin; they are, however, sometimes elevated on pear-shaped bulbs. The eyes of starfish are generally quite primitive in character, as far as I have been able to determine, being simply pigmented spots which are supplied with nerves; in several species, however, I have been able to make out lenses. The eyes are arranged along the rays ...
— The Dawn of Reason - or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals • James Weir

... came, the girls with the platters walking ahead. On one of these were what looked like joints of baked pork, on another some plantains and pear-shaped fruits. They knelt down and offered these to us. We contemplated them for a while. Then Bickley shook his head and began to rub his stomach with appropriate contortions. Clearly they were quick-minded enough for they saw the point. At some words ...
— When the World Shook - Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot • H. Rider Haggard

... "thunderstones" are described as "axes," but Meunier (La Nature, 1892-2-381) tells of one that was in his possession; said to have fallen at Ghardia, Algeria, contrasting "profoundment" (pear-shaped) with the angular outlines of ordinary meteorites. The conventional explanation that it had been formed as a drop of molten matter from a larger body seems reasonable to me; but with less agreeableness I note its fall in a thunderstorm, the datum that turns the orthodox meteorologist ...
— The Book of the Damned • Charles Fort

... of the effects that the sloe-weevil builds a ventilating chimney to prevent the asphyxiation of her larva? that the Scarabaeus sacer contrives a filter at the smaller end of its pear-shaped ball, by means of which the grub is able to breathe? or that Arachne labyrintha "introduces in her silk-work a rampart of compressed earth to protect her eggs from the probe of ...
— Fabre, Poet of Science • Dr. G.V. (C.V.) Legros

... fifteen or twenty feet high, with light green bipinnate leaves (from which exuded an amber-coloured eatable gum), formed groves and thickets within it. A Capparis, a small stunted tree, was in fruit: this fruit is about one inch long and three-quarters of an inch broad, pear-shaped and smooth, with some irregular prominent lines. Capparis Mitchelii has a downy fruit, and is common in the scrubs. A small trailing Capparis, also with oblong eatable fruit, was first observed on a hill near Ruined Castle Creek, in lat. 25 degrees 10 minutes: we met with it frequently ...
— Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia • Ludwig Leichhardt

... rounded at the summit and narrow at the base. FROND. A fern leaf or blade; may include both stipe and blade, or only the latter—called also lamina. GLABROUS. Smooth; not rough or hairy. GLAND. A small secreting organ, globular or pear-shaped; it is often stalked. GLAUCOUS. Covered with a fine bloom, bluish-white and powdery, in appearance like a plum. HASTATE. Like an arrowhead with the lobes spreading. IMBRICATE. Overlapping, like shingles on a roof. INCISED. Cut irregularly into sharp lobes. INDUSIUM. The thin membrane covering ...
— The Fern Lover's Companion - A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada • George Henry Tilton

... will follow—at least that was my experience in my boyish days, when I was particularly interested in vermin, and the gamekeeper was my first instructor in natural history. The face is rounded like a cat, but the skull behind the eye is very long and pear-shaped when viewed from above; in proportion to a cat's skull the brain case is a fourth longer. They are most sanguinary in their habits, and their agility is great, so on the whole they are most formidable to many animals, not only smaller, ...
— Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon • Robert A. Sterndale

... treasure chamber. She would for a long time scrutinise all this show of gaudy jewellery, adapted to the taste of the fish-wives, and carefully read the large figures on the tickets affixed to each article; and eventually she would select for herself a pair of earrings—pear-shaped drops of imitation coral ...
— The Fat and the Thin • Emile Zola

... through the rectum gives the earliest satisfactory indications. The hand and arm, well oiled, are introduced, and the excrement having been removed if necessary, the palm of the hand is turned downward and the floor of the pelvis carefully examined. There will be felt in the median line the pear-shaped outline of the bladder, more or less full, rounded or tense, according to the quantity of urine it contains. Between this and the hand will be felt a soft, somewhat rounded tubular body, which divides in front into ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... negative. It was said, however, that spherical bubbles sometimes appear in scientific gems. Another characteristic structural defect of practically every scientific gem may be utilized to distinguish them. As is well known, the rough material is formed in boules or pear-shaped drops under an inverted blowpipe. The powdered material is fed in with one of the gases and passes through the flame, melting as it goes, and then accumulating and crystallizing below as a boule. The top or head of this boule is ...
— A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public • Frank Bertram Wade

... make balloons dirigible one of the first steps was to change the form from the spherical or pear-shaped bag to a cylindrical, or cigar-shape. This device was adopted by the brothers Robert in France as early as 1784. Their balloon further had a double skin or envelope, its purpose being partly to save the gas which percolated through the inner skin, partly to maintain the rigidity of the structure. ...
— Aircraft and Submarines - The Story of the Invention, Development, and Present-Day - Uses of War's Newest Weapons • Willis J. Abbot

... don't let him go," our people cried, when it was plain that all his strength had gone out of his arms. Achmed's pear-shaped head slipped from between his arms as the Tartar wound his legs about Ghitza's body and began to crush him. Ghitza held on with all his strength. His face was blue black. His nose bled, and from his mouth he spat blood. Our people cried and begged him to hold on. The eyes of the Tartars ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1920 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... but the only ones she knew would be recognized, were the brooch that had fastened the plume in Berenger's bloody cap, and the chaplet of pearls. To part with the first, or to risk the second in the pirate-ship, was impossible, but Eustacie at last decided upon detaching the pear-shaped pearl which was nearest the clasp, and which was so remarkable in form and tint that there was no doubt ...
— The Chaplet of Pearls • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the linen of the woman and man, and will be recognized under the microscope by the presence in it of spermatozoa, minute filamentary bodies with a pear-shaped head; but it must not be forgotten that the non-detection of spermatozoa is no proof of absence of sexual intercourse, for these bodies are not always present in the semen of even healthy adult young men. Spermatozoa must not be mistaken for the Trichomonas vaginae found ...
— Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology • W. G. Aitchison Robertson

... merchant, who saluted them by extending his hand towards the ground as if to take up dust, and then bringing it to his forehead. He was very fat, and his pear-shaped face might have been carved out of white cheese. The two young men went in by a small door at the side of the window-counter and disappeared into the interior. At the back of the shop there was a private room with a latticed window that looked out upon a narrow canal. It was one of many places ...
— Marietta - A Maid of Venice • F. Marion Crawford

... to be pear-shaped, and we, having by chance struck the small end of the pear, emerge considerably before the other battalions, who, having come up on our right, are biting into the largest part of the pear. Sounds of heavy conflict arise, and ...
— From the St. Lawrence to the Yser with the 1st Canadian brigade • Frederic C. Curry

... vegetable substance yields to his keen steel, almost as easily as if he were slicing a Swedish turnip; and soon he detaches a pear-shaped piece, but bigger than the largest ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid

... the little pear-shaped piece from the sand, laid it on the stone beside us, and placing the edge of the knife upon it, pressed down hard, with the result that he cut a nick in the metal, which held on fast to the blade ...
— To The West • George Manville Fenn

... (Fig. 1).—These are the ordinary flasks of the chemical laboratory. A good variety, ranging in capacity from 250 to 3000 c.c., should be kept on hand. A modified form, known as the "pear-shaped" (Fig. 2), is preferable for the smaller sizes—i. e., 250 ...
— The Elements of Bacteriological Technique • John William Henry Eyre

... Sumerians and long-headed Chinese are of the agglutinative variety, so are those also which are spoken by the broad-headed Turks and Magyars of Hungary, the broad-headed and long-headed, dark and fair Finns, and the brunet and short-statured Basques with pear-shaped faces, who are regarded as a variation of the Mediterranean race with distinctive characteristics developed in isolation. Languages afford no sure indication of racial ...
— Myths of Babylonia and Assyria • Donald A. Mackenzie

... decorated internally with a submarginal band consisting of a vine and leaf; externally with a band of small pear-shaped figures; all in black. ...
— Illustrated Catalogue of the Collections Obtained from the Indians of New Mexico in 1880 • James Stevenson



Words linked to "Pear-shaped" :   round, rotund, circular, full, orotund



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