taurine

Other forms: taurines

Use the adjective taurine to describe someone or something that resembles a bull, like a big, broad dog lumbering through the dog park.

The resemblance to the astrological sign known as "Taurus" is the tipoff to the meaning of taurine: this elegant adjective means "relating to or resembling a bull." In fact, in Latin taurus means "bull." You might describe a football player in a tiny antique shop, bumping against delicate furniture and jostling tea cups, as taurine.

Definitions of taurine

1. noun

   a colorless crystalline substance obtained from the bile of mammals
   type of:

   chemical compound, compound

   (chemistry) a substance formed by chemical union of two or more elements or ingredients in definite proportion by weight