different between gargoylish vs gargoyle

English

Etymology

gargoyle +? -ish

Adjective

gargoylish (comparative more gargoylish, superlative most gargoylish)

1. Resembling or characteristic of a gargoyle.
   • 1933, Barnaby Ross, Drury Lane's Last Case, republished, March 1946, as by Ellery Queen, Little, Brown, page 45:

     […] out popped the gargoylish head of a bulb-nosed old man.

   • 1996, Daniel Quinn, The Story of B, Bantam (1997), ?ISBN, page 56:

     B's gargoylish face twisted into a scowl that seemed half-serious, half-humorous.

   • 2010, Matt Cardin, "The New Pauline Corpus", in Cthulhu's Reign (ed. Darrell Schweitzer), DAW Books (2010), ?ISBN, unnumbered page:

     I turn my eyes skyward and see the gargoylish figures still commanding the open air between the coiling columns of smoke.

English

Etymology

From Old French gargouille. Doublet of gargle. The Académie Française suggests the first attestation as gargoule in 1294.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /????.???l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /????.???l/

Noun

gargoyle (plural gargoyles)

1. A carved grotesque figure on a spout which conveys water away from the gutters.
2. Any decorative carved grotesque figure on a building.
3. A fictional winged monster.
4. (slang, derogatory) An ugly woman.

Synonyms

• (any decorative carved grotesque figure): grotesque, hunky punk
• (ugly woman): crone, hag

Derived terms

• gargoylish

Translations