Definitions

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

  • adjective film, art Having the character of film noir

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

noir +‎ -ish

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Examples

  • Those "noirish" lines rolled off her tongue probably better than anyone else's in that movie, save maybe Mickey Rourke.

    Actress Brittany Murphy Dies at 32 | /Film 2009

  • The entire book is a kind of noirish quest as Cicero struggles to learn what is real and what is false.

    Dominion Ed Gorman 2008

  • The entire book is a kind of noirish quest as Cicero struggles to learn what is real and what is false.

    Archive 2008-05-01 Ed Gorman 2008

  • His place in the film is ambiguous, and one gets the sense that he's there only because Melville was naturally drawn to that kind of noirish image, a predecessor of Alain Delon's cold/cool hitman from Le samourai.

    Archive 2007-12-01 Ed Howard 2007

  • His place in the film is ambiguous, and one gets the sense that he's there only because Melville was naturally drawn to that kind of noirish image, a predecessor of Alain Delon's cold/cool hitman from Le samourai.

    Short Film Week, Day 4: Haynes, Melville, Saul Levine Ed Howard 2007

  • Turning from his comedic work at Britain's Ealing Studios to direct this noirish, all-American masterpiece about greed, ambition, and the perversity of power, Alexander MacKendrick relied on estimable playwright Clifford Odets and writer Ernest Lehman for their scripting talent.

    John Farr: Two Passing Greats: A Tribute to Arthur Penn and Tony Curtis John Farr 2010

  • Kemal Kayankaya is all that and sometimes worse, and yet this ethnic-Turk-in-Frankfurt moral scourge is as winning a noirish gumshoe as has swooped onto the mystery scene in some time.

    Unlikely gumshoe with grit Richard Lipez 2011

  • Kemal Kayankaya is all that and sometimes worse, and yet this ethnic-Turk-in-Frankfurt moral scourge is as winning a noirish gumshoe as has swooped onto the mystery scene in some time.

    Unlikely gumshoe with grit Richard Lipez 2011

  • Fans of David Slade, the acclaimed director of cult hits including the psycho-sexual thriller “Hard Candy” and the graphic novel noirish vampire flick “30 Days of Night,” might be shocked to discover that the man has a sweeter side.

    TWILIGHT SAGA NEWS FOR MARCH 4TH | Open Society Book Club Discussions and Reviews 2010

  • Turning from his comedic work at Britain's Ealing Studios to direct this noirish, all-American masterpiece about greed, ambition, and the perversity of power, Alexander MacKendrick relied on estimable playwright Clifford Odets and writer Ernest Lehman for their scripting talent.

    John Farr: Two Passing Greats: A Tribute to Arthur Penn and Tony Curtis John Farr 2010

Comments

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  • A scene like this, a ransom scene, calls for a noirish mood: shadows, sinister silhouettes. But the sky wasn't cooperating. We were having one of our pink nights.

    —Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002, Middlesex, p. 502

    August 17, 2008

  • noirish = noir like. Noir is french and means ?

    April 5, 2009