hawkish

adjective

hawk·​ish ˈhȯ-kish 

1

: resembling or suggesting a hawk or the beak of a hawk in appearance

a hawkish nose

He has a thatch of black curly hair and hawkish features.

—Jeff Shear

2

: having a militant attitude (as in a dispute) and advocating immediate vigorous action

especially : supporting war or warlike policies

a hawkish politician

He was a frequent and persistently hawkish participant in the war councils of the Administration.

—Vincent Blasi

While definitions vary, "neoconservative" generally refers to formerly moderate policy advocates who favor a hawkish and assertive foreign policy to implant democracy and American values abroad.

—Paul Richter

hawkishly adverb

Land is expensive, scarce, and watched hawkishly by environmentalists.

—Boston Magazine

hawkishness noun

… his Western anti-government philosophy and cold-war hawkishness…

—Jon Meacham

Examples of hawkish in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Republican Party, for decades, was held together by a three-legged stool of fiscal conservatism, cultural conservatism and a hawkish foreign policy. —Domenico Montanaro, NPR, 5 Jan. 2026

Reassuring results from Micron breathed life back into the AI-infrastructure theme while a cool CPI reading allowed investors concerned about a hawkish Fed to exhale, allowing for a relief bounce in the indexes that for now looks welcome but inconclusive. —Michael Santoli, CNBC, 18 Dec. 2025

This has been a subject of heated debate among tech executives, even hawkish ones: OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI firms have argued against selling advanced American AI chips to China, as a way to maintain the nation’s technological edge. —Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 12 Dec. 2025

With policymakers sharply divided and with a more hawkish rotation ahead, additional cuts now require more definitive signs that labor momentum is cooling and that core inflation is settling closer to 3% in early 2026. —Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 11 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1747, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for hawkish

• mawkish