Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In art, the skull of an ox: an ornament often sculptured, frequently with adornment of wreaths or other decoration, on the frieze of the entablature in the Roman Ionic and Corinthian orders of architecture, and also in other situations.
- noun The herb calf's-snout.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A sculptured ornament, representing an ox skull adorned with wreaths, etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The
head of anox .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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A decoration in white paint over the doorways of certain houses in the south is a relic of the religious custom of placing a bucranium there to avert evil.
The Treasury of Ancient Egypt Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology Arthur E. P. B. Weigall
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He was a musician, being given to improvising verses while accompanying himself on a lute of his own invention, shaped like a bucranium and possessing wonderful sonorousness.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 15: Tournely-Zwirner 1840-1916 1913
qms commented on the word bucranium
This wisdom received from a brainy chum:
To put down one who is plainly dumb,
"You're a horse's ass,"
Is needlessly crass,
But fulsomely praise his bucranium.
November 6, 2014