vandyke

See also: Vandyke

English

Portrait of Charles I from three angles by Anthony van Dyck. Features both a Vandyke beard and a Vandyke collar.

Alternative forms

• Van Dyck
• Vandyck
• Vandyke

Etymology

Named after 17th-century Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck.

Noun

vandyke (plural vandykes)

1. An edge with ornamental triangular points.
2. A style of facial hair which has both a mustache and goatee but with all cheek hair shaven.

   Synonym: Vandyke beard

   • 1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 5, in The Adventures of Augie March:

     He was still an old galliard, with white Buffalo Bill vandyke, and he swanked around, still healthy of flesh, in white suits, looking things over with big sex-amused eyes.

3. A style of dress or collar similar to those in Anthony van Dyck's portrait paintings; a small round cape, the border ornamented with points and indentations.

Verb

1. (transitive) To fit or furnish with a vandyke; to form with points or scallops like a vandyke.
   • 1898, Rudyard Kipling, The Day's Work‎^[1], volume 1:

     Again I searched, and found a most diabolical pair of cock-nosed shears, capable of vandyking the interiors of elephants.

   • 1898, Stanley John Weyman, The Castle Inn‎^[2]:

     The travellers had not advanced many paces towards them before the peaks of three gables rose above them, vandyking the sky and docking the last sparse branches of the elms. Mr. Thomasson's exclamation of relief, as he surveyed the building, was cut short by the harsh rattle of a chain, followed by the roar of a watch-dog, as it bounded from the kennel; in a second a horrid raving and baying, as of a score of hounds, awoke the night.