cheekbone
nounUS /ˈt͡ʃikˌboʊn/
Etymology From Middle English chekebon, chekbone, from Old English ċēacbān (“cheekbone”); equivalent to cheek + bone. Compare Dutch kaakbeen (“jawbone”).
1
The small prominent bone of the cheek.
- She was like a Beardsley Salome, he had said. And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry.1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
- A youngish-looking man came up to him, and aggressive-looking type with a hook mouth, a lantern nose, and small beady little cheekbones.1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 113:
- Synonyms
- malar bone, zygoma, zygomatic bone
- Derived terms
- cheekboned, cheekbony