bookish Hear it!

bookish Definition

book·ish (bo̵okis̸h)

adjective

  1. of or connected with books
  2. inclined to read and study; literary; scholarly
  3. having mere book learning
  4. pedantic; stodgy

bookish Related Forms
book·ishly adverb book·ish·ness noun
bookish Synonyms

bookish

modif.

scholarly, academic, erudite, book-learned; see learned 1, pedantic.

bookish Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • type: Buckner pins some bookish types to said page with unnerving precision.
  • boy: Simon Randall is a fifteen year old bookish young boy who recently lost his mother.
  • nature: Girls were certainly drawn to him, especially those of a bookish nature with a love of the arts.
  • journalist: Robert Birnbaum, a bookish journalist, was born in Germany, grew up in Chicago, lived for too many years in Boston.
  • sort: Followed by clever sausage, the bespectacled bookish sort who loves his mother.
  • interest: Presumably her boys had shown some bookish interests because they were all apprenticed to be booksellers in London.

Modifying Another Word

  • very: With the important exception of the Prince of Wales, the current royal family is not very bookish.

Browse dictionary entries near bookish

  1. booking
  2. bookie
  3. bookend
  4. booked
  5. bookcase
  6. bookbinding
  7. bookbindery
  8. book value
  9. book transfer
  10. book-to-bill
  1. bookkeeper
  2. bookkeeping
  3. booklet
  4. bookmaker
  5. bookman
  6. bookmark
  7. bookmobile
  8. bookplate
  9. bookrack
  10. bookrest