English

Verb

Adonise ‎(third-person singular simple present Adonises, present participle Adonising, simple past and past participle Adonised)

1. Alternative form of adonise
   • 1828, Charles Waterton & B. Fellows, Wanderings in South America, the North-West of the United States, and the Antilles, in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 & 1824:

     both male and female Adonise their tails in this manner, which gives them a remarkable appearance amongst all other birds.

   • 1845, The Asiatic journal and monthly miscellany - Volume 4, page 422:

     He next tootled for half an hour upon a one-keyed flute, and then proceeded to Adonise. Notwithstanding all that some writers have said about a physical aristocracy, — an air of refinement,— which is perceptible under the veriest rags, I am entirely of the opinion, with Bob Acres in the Rivals, that dress "does make a difference."

   • 75, George R. Graham, Edgar Allan Poe, Graham's Magazine - Volumes 28-29, page 1846:

     And more — in the course of your acquaintauce with the Tantrums, you must have noticed, of a cold evening, when Tantrum desired to " Adonise," that he might be intensely agreeable to all beholders, and " lovelily dreadful" to the ladies, that "that razor" would cut his chin in defiance of all he could do to the contrary;

   • 1848, John William Carleton, The Sporting review, page 1:

     You swear — you reprobate, so you do — when your bootmaker seeks to Adonise your instep, or the pine you patronized over night quarrels with your coffee in the morning.

English

Alternative forms

• Adonise
• adonize
• Adonize

Verb

adonise ‎(third-person singular simple present adonises, present participle adonising, simple past and past participle adonised)

1. (transitive) To embellish or adorn, especially in order to improve the appearance of.
   • 1804, Christoph Martin Wieland, Confessions in Elysium: Or, The Adventures of a Platonic, page 73-74:

     Delighted with each other......we rambled....arm in arm......about the citron groves;.......and, when a mossy bank invited our repose...my charmer would weave garlands of flowers to adonise her shepherd ; ..........recline upon my arm..... and to the gentle lullaby of a murmuring stream..... sink into forgetfulness

   • 1830, an old army surgeon, Economy of the hands and feet, fingers and toes, page 107:

     Formerly, if not exactly to the same extent at the present day, mineral substances were only made use of to adonise the complexion ; indeed, every composition is qualified with this name, whether it be white or red, which women, and even men (coxcombs), with a clear skin, subserve to embellish their faces, with a view to imitate the colours of youth, or artificially to repair the absence of them.

   • 2013, Steven Douglas, Lincoln’s Bedsheet, ISBN 1448189578:

     Of all the looming Negroes that Lincoln could have brought into the White House to adonise his cause, Johnson had been his choice, with the scuttling train of a monitor lizard.

2. (intransitive) To enhance one's own appearance.
   • 1820, Peter Bayley, Sketches from St. George's Fields, page 122:

     Leaving a breath to swell his tradesmen's books, To adonise, to smile, and kill with looks;

   • 1859, Mrs. Octavius Freire Owen, Raised to the Peerage: A Novel, page 158:

     Since I parted with Darnley, who went in to adonise, I believe, Cameron has been hindering me with acknowledgments and regrets.

   • 1891, John Keats (ed Sir Sidney Colvin), Letters of John Keats to His Family and Friends, page 291:

     Whenever I find myself growing vapourish, I rouse myself, wash, and put on a clean shirt, brush my hair and clothes, tie my shoestrings neatly, and in fact adonise as I were going out.

Usage notes

Originally, this word was often capitalized, perhaps reflecting its origins from a proper noun (Adonis). After about 1850, however, the use of the upper case version gives way to a lower-case version.

French

Pronunciation

• Homophones: adonisent, adonises

Verb

adonise

1. first-person singular present indicative of adoniser
2. third-person singular present indicative of adoniser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of adoniser
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of adoniser
5. second-person singular imperative of adoniser