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

Macron’s hawkish pro-Ukraine message arrives at a time when Kyiv’s difficulties are piling up. —Célia Belin, Foreign Affairs, 5 Apr. 2024

Meanwhile, momentum trading is getting choppy amid signs the US economy is still growing at a healthy clip while Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week stopped short of issuing new hawkish warnings over easing financial conditions. —Justina Lee, Fortune, 30 Mar. 2024

The remarks by Patrushev and Bortnikov offer an insight into hawkish thinking at the top of the Kremlin elite. —Reuters, NBC News, 26 Mar. 2024

The vote shines a fresh spotlight on union cultures between the liberal European market and the hawkish U.S. one, one motivated by the UAW’s huge victory in Detroit last year. —Byryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 26 Mar. 2024

And in an interview published on Friday in a hawkish pro-Kremlin tabloid, the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, attempted to explain the change. —Ivan Nechepurenko, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024

But House Republicans have been hawkish in recent months about government spending, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) may face a rift in his volatile conference about whether and how to move support legislation for Baltimore. —Jacob Bogage, Washington Post, 31 Mar. 2024

But since then, inflation has remained an issue, pressuring the lira and forcing Turkey’s new central bank governor, Fatih Karahan, to take a hawkish stance in the first few months of his term. —Will Daniel, Fortune, 21 Mar. 2024

The upward revision came amid growing market expectations that the Bank of Japan could ditch negative interest rates as early as this month, fueled in part by board members’ recent hawkish comments that Japan was moving towards the central bank’s 2% inflation target. —Reuters, CNN, 10 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1747, in the meaning defined at sense 1