Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to animals or living beings; relating to or characterized by animal life; marked by the presence of life.

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

  • adjective (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to animals, or animal life.

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

  • adjective rare Showing traces of life; containing organic remains.
  • adjective Having the form of an animal; animal-like, zoomorphic.

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

  • adjective pertaining to animals or animal life or action

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Greek ζωικός, from ζώιον ‘animal’.

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Examples

  • In all those mythologies which have been studied with any degree of care up to the present time zoic deities greatly prevail, the progenitors and prototypes of the animals of the land, air, and water; yet there are other deities.

    Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891 John Wesley Powell 1868

  • Their gods are zoic, and the chief among them are the wolf, the rabbit, the eagle, the jay, the rattlesnake, and the spider.

    Canyons of the Colorado John Wesley Powell 1868

  • The Indians are very skillful actors, and they represent the parts of beasts or reptiles, wearing masks and imitating the ancient zoic gods.

    Canyons of the Colorado John Wesley Powell 1868

  • The heavenly bodies, the sun and moon and stars, are mythic animals, and all of the phenomena of nature are attributed to these zoic beings.

    Canyons of the Colorado John Wesley Powell 1868

  • About their camp fires scattered in forest glades by brooks and lakes, they assemble to dance and sing in honor of their gods -- wonderful mythic animals, for they hold as divine the ancient of bears, the eagle of the lost centuries, the rattlesnake of primeval times, and a host of other zoic deities.

    Canyons of the Colorado John Wesley Powell 1868

  • Take the NYC mindset out of the Rockies and back to where it belongs - 1,500 miles from here. zoic

    Vail Daily - Top Stories 2009

  • Can't believe I actually read the entire article. ... zoic

    The Vail Trail - All Sections 2009

  • Subsequently the zoic concept fades, and the constant association of human intellectual qualities engenders an anthropic concept, when the sun becomes an anthropomorphic deity (perhaps bearing a dazzling mask, as among the

    The Siouan Indians 1882

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