owlish

English

owl +‎ -ish

owlish (comparative more owlish, superlative most owlish)

Resembling or characteristic of an owl.
- 1914, Theodore Dreiser, The Titan, Chapter 26, [1]
  "You're very right," he said, with owlish smugness, adjusting a waistcoat button that had come loose, and smoothing his cuffs.
- 1951, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 2, in World So Wide‎^[2]:
  He feebly wanted to get out of this, away from clucking nurses and Dr. Crittenham's owlish peering and the horrible scrambled eggs and cold toast.
- 1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 4, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998:
  This owl imitated Trumpkin’s voice rather well, and there were sounds of owlish laughter all round.
Wise and solemn. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
- 1880, R. M. Ballantyne, Blown to Bits or, The Lonely Man of Rakata:
  […] their large black eyes scanned the drawings with the owlish look of wisdom peculiar to connoisseurs.
Stupid; dull-looking.

resembling or characteristic of an owl