English

Adjective

animalian ‎(comparative more animalian, superlative most animalian)

1. (rare) of an animal or animals
   • 1998, Sayre N. Greenfield, The Ends of Allegory, Delaware, ISBN 0874136709, page 142 :

     To give an instance from the animalian side of Linnaeus's efforts, he may have classified the swift (Hirundo apus) and the swallow (Hirundo rustica) together because of general similarity […] .

   • 1999, Anne Rice, Vittorio the Vampire, 2001 Ballantine edition, ISBN 9780345422392, page 121 :

     We stood before the Lord in the high-backed chair, and I saw that the wood figures of his regal throne were, of course, animalian, feline and diabolical.

2. (rare) like that of an animal or animals
   • 1982, Anne Rice, Cry to Heaven, 1995 Ballantine edition, ISBN 0345396936, page 78 :

     He did not look at her because he did not wish to see that deliciously animalian slit of her mouth, naked and red, beneath the white mask that made her eyes look so feline.

   • 2007, Lynn Stegner, Because a Fire Was in My Head, Nebraska, ISBN 0803207638, page 202 :

     His big hands clutched him about the collar of the suit that had once been fine, and he was shaking him with animalian violence, shoving him […] .

Synonyms

• (of an animal): bestial, beastly
• (like that of an animal): bestial, beastly