[a. L. leōnīn-us, f. leōn- LION. Cf. F. léonin.]
1. Resembling a lion or that of a lion; lion-like.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monk’s T., 656. So was he ful of leonyn corage.
c. 1430. Lydg., Reas. & Sens. (E.E.T.S.), 168/6422. They ben of wisdam Serpentyne And of force leonyne.
1631. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlew. (1641), 338. Neere resemblance had Leëna’s name with her Leonine nature.
1660. Gauden, Serm. Funeral Dr. Brounrig, Q vj b. And bring them from that which in their Physiognomy is … leonine (for so we read some men had lionly looks).
1822. Wordsw., Eccl. Sonn., I. Rich. I. Redoubted King, of courage leonine, I mark thee, Richard!
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, III. v. (1872), 208. Great sensibility … which he had an over-tendency to express even by tears,—a singular sight in so leonine a man.
1869. Dixon, Tower, I. iii. 30. In her youth she had none of that leonine beauty of her later years.
1887–9. T. A. Trollope, What I remember, II. xiv. 245. Landor … was a man of somewhat leonine aspect.
b. Leonine monkey: the Macacus leoninus (Cent. Dict.). Leonine seal: ? the SEA-LION.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog., I. 185. Leonine Seals are found in great numbers on the eastern shores of Kamtschatka…. The Leonine Seal has the head and eyes large … and along the neck of the male there is a mane of stiff curled hair.
2. Of or relating to a lion.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xlviii. 91. And first the Lyone … With visage bawld, and curage leonyne.
1755. Johnson, Leonine, belonging to a lion; having the nature of a lion. Ibid., Tiger, a fierce beast of the leonine kind.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., III. xxv. 59. As is the piper’s art to the pipe … so is the soul of the lion to the body leonine.
1861. Geikie & Wilson, Mem. E. Forbes, ix. 248. They styled themselves ‘Red Lions,’ and, in proof of their leonine relationship, made it a point of always signifying their approval or dissent by growls and roars more or less audible.
3. Roman Law. Leonine convention or partnership [L. leonina societas] (see quot.).
Cf. Sp. contrato leonino, in S. America a contract in which the advantage is, in the judgment of the Court, manifestly and unfairly one-sided; such a contract may be held void.
1875. Poste, Gaius, III. Comm. (ed. 2), 426. Aristo records the decision of Cassius that a partnership on the terms that one should take all the profits and another bear all the loss, which he calls a leonine partnership, is not binding.
4. Comb.: leonine-colo(u)red adj.
a. 1697. Aubrey, Lives, S. Butler (1898), I. 138. He was of a leonine-coloured haire, middle-sized, strong.
Hence Leoninely adv., in the manner of a lion.
1751. J. Harris, Hermes, I. xi. (1765), 209. Adverbs may be derived … from Substantives, as from λέων, a Lion, λεοντωδῶς, Leoninely.
