Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or characteristic of bears or a bear.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to a bear or bears: as, an ursine genus; related to the bear; arctoid: as, the ursine series of Carnivora; resembling a bear or what relates to a bear: as, an ursine walk.
  • In entomology, thickly clothed with long, bristle-like, erect hairs: applied especially to certain lepidopterous larvæ.
  • noun A bear; any member of the family Ursidæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a bear; resembling a bear.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) See Chacma.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) the Tasmanian devil.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) the araguato. See Illust. under Howler.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) See Sea bear, and the Note under 1st Seal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of bears.
  • adjective entomology, of caterpillars Covered in stiff bristles.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to or similar to bears

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin ursīnus, from ursus, bear; see r̥tko- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Mid 16th century, from Latin ursinus, adjectival form of ursus ("bear").

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Examples

Comments

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  • (Grizzly) Bear-like.

    December 8, 2006

  • All of the following, which are usually adjectives, can be used as nouns: canine, feline, equine, bovine, murine, ovine. But why are the other '-ine' adjectives (ursine being my favorite) un-noun-able? This really bothers me...

    May 20, 2007

  • It isn't entirely un-noun-able. You'd say ursa, I imagine.

    I occasionally, when half-asleep, confuse this word with Ursuline. Nuns, bears... what's the difference?

    January 16, 2009

  • *hoping that's a rhetorical question*

    January 16, 2009

  • Stephen Colbert would understand.

    January 16, 2009

  • A slow secret smile swept into Harkaway,s face. It was wolfish, ursine, vulpine. Cold Comfort Farm.

    February 23, 2013