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

That more hawkish stance is now entrenched in Washington, but the shift toward confrontation and economic nationalism has gone too far. —Myron Brilliant, TIME, 12 Mar. 2025

Almost all of them ran really hawkish messages on immigration that often blamed the Biden Administration. —Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025

President Trump's explosive Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shocked hawkish Republican lawmakers and led one prominent GOP backer of Ukraine to suggest that Zelensky should resign. —Andrew Solender, Axios, 28 Feb. 2025

The new administration’s embrace of deregulation and M&A has been scaled back after recent hawkish messages about M&A, which disappointed Wall Street. —R. Scott Raynovich, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1747, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for hawkish

• mawkish