Noses

alcoholic, aquiline, arrogant, askew, beaked, beautiful, bent, bibulous, big, blobby, blunt, bloody,
bold, bony, boozy, bovine, brazen, broad, broken, bubbling, bumped, childlike, chiseled, classic,
cleft, coarse, colossal, comical, commanding, conspicuous, craggy, crooked, cruel, curved
D to H
daunting, defiant, delicate, dimpled, disdainful, distorted, droopy, dusty, effeminate, elegant,
enormous, exotic, fake, false, fat, feline, feminine, feverish, fine, flaccid, flat, foot-long, freckled,
frostbitten, garish, girly, glowing, granite, grimy, haggish, haughty, heavy, hoggish, hooked

I to O
imperious, impish, imposing, impudent, insignificant, intrusive, jolly, keen, knobby, lean, little, long,
lopsided, lumpy, magisterial, mammoth, mangled, masculine, mashed, massive, meaty, miniscule,
misshapen, monstrous, mud-covered, narrow, neat, needle-sharp, nodular, nondescript, off-center,
oversized
P to R
petulant, pert, petite, pickled, piggy, pinched, pious, pixie, pliable, pliant, pockmarked, pointed,
pompous, porcine, portentous, powdered, prodigious, prominent, protruding, proud, puckish, puffy,
pug, pugnacious, refined, regal, rubbery, runny

S
saucy, scarred, scary, scorched, sculpted, serpentine, sharp, skeletal, skinny, slender, slippery,
sloped, small, sniffly, snobbish, snotty, soft, sottish, spongy, squat, stately, straight, strong,
squashed, stubborn, stubby, stuffy, stumpy, stupendous, sunken, supercilious, superior, sweat-
beaded, swollen

T to Y
thick, thin, thoroughbred, tiny, twisted, two-foot, ulcerated, underdeveloped, veined, velvety, vinous,
vulpine, wavy, waxen, weak, wide, wooden, wrinkled, wry, yielding

 Eye Appearance
 Eye appearance/shape isn’t too difficult to write — round, almond, bug-eyed, beady,
sloe-eyed, hooded, upturned/cat, downturned etc. We might also include how the eyes
are placed on the face: close-set, deep-set, monolid, protruding 
Brow furrowed as his mouth turned grim

Brows knitted in a frown

Bushy brows beetled

Drilled her with

Eyed him demurely/boldly

Eyes crossed in exasperation

Eyes rolled skyward

Gawking at

Glanced sideways

Glared daggers [overused]

Inspected the cabin
Inventoried his surroundings
Lashes swept up and she blinked
Leveled a glowering look
Lingered over the script lines
Lowered her eyes/opened
Narrowed to crinkled slits
One heavy brow slanted in strong disapproval
Penetrating gaze probed
Perusing the sea of faces in hopes of
Plugged his eyes back into their sockets
Pried her eyes off the hunk
Probing visual caress
Raked with disdain
Searching the depths
Shifted her angry glare to
Shot him a disgusted glance
Sighted out the corner of her eye
Slammed her eyes shut and hummed the pain
Squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth
Squinted
Staring fixedly
Strange pale eyes darted
Studied with piercing scrutiny
Subtle wink
Swung her restless gaze
Tracking the other man’s gaze
Unglued her eyes from him
Unrelenting stare
Up went his brows
Violet eyes strayed to the
Watched until distance obscured
Wrenched his gaze
Eye Expression and Appearance
[Some of these cross over with Movement]
Moon-eyed
Sloe-eyed
Burned fanatically
Devoured her beauty
Eyes implored
A look designed to peel his hide
All-consuming
Almond shaped
Appraising glance
Astute gaze
Avid eyes attested to his quick wit
Beady rat eyes
Beseeching
Bewildered
Blazed like torches
Boomerang brows like Ayatollah Khomeini’s
Bright with age
Bug-eyed
Bulging with fright
Chaotic, helter-skelter eyebrow—like his mind, unsystematic and fickle
Cold/cool/chilly/icy/frigid
Commanding visage
Cross-eyed
Crudely insulting stare
Deep set beneath heavy black brows
Disapproval gleamed in her eyes
Dissatisfaction plowed his brow
Disturbing smoke-hued
Elliptical eyes with heavy lids
Eyebrows like checkmarks
Eyes all gooey with
Eyes like a shark
Feline eyes
Flashed with gaiety/anger etc
Flat black, dispassionate as bullets
Frankly assessing
Get a load of those blinkers
Gleam of deviltry
Glittering with
Green flinty rocks
Hallows of madness
Hard as nails
Heart-stopping eyes
Held hostage by his eyes
Intent and unwavering/riveted
Irritated visage
Liquid pools of
Luminous glow of happiness
Magnetic
Mellow as the sky at sunset
Narrowed to slits
Nebulous gaze / unreadable
New moon-shaped
Penetrating blue of his eyes
Possessed the power to make her
Rheumy old eyes
Sardonic/disdaining/skeptical/mocking
Sharp with intelligence
Slits for eyes
Sliver of emotion in those cool eyes
Sloped down at the corners like a sad pup
Small evil eyes
Sneaky close-set eyes
So tired his eyeballs seemed to sag out
Steeply arched brows
Sunken in the head
Sympathetic
Tears of remorse flooded
The dark mystery of his eyes
Triangular brows/always surprised
Twenty-twenty vision
Veiled expression of
Visionary eyes
Visual exploration of
Watery eyes
Where did you get those peepers
Wild and frightened
Wore spectacles/glasses/winkers

ample, baggy, baggy-figured, beer-bellied, big-bellied, big-boned, bloated, blubbery, broad, bulging,
bulky, chubby, chunky, corpulent, cumbersome, curvaceous, dimpled, doughy, dumpy, elephantine,
fat, fatso, flabby, fleshy, full-figured

G to R
generously padded, generously proportioned, gross, heavily built, heavy, heavy-set, hefty, Humpty
Dumptyish, large, large-boned, matronly, obese, overheavy, overweight, paunchy, plump, podgy,
ponderous, porky, portly, potbellied, pudgy, puffy, roly-poly
S to W
sloppy, squat, stocky, stout, sumoesque, swollen, thick, thickset, tubby, ungainly, unwieldly, weighty,
well-fed, well-padded, well-rounded, wide

Weight: At or Below-Average
Several of the adjectives in this section could also appear in the Height: Tall area. For
example: beanstalk and lanky.
A to R
aerodynamic, angular, beanstalk, bony, delicate, fine-boned, gangly, lank, lanky, lean, lissome, lithe,
meager of body, narrow, rawboned

S to W
scraggy, scrawny, sinuous, skeletal, skin-and-bone, skinny, sleek, slender, slight, slightly-built, slim,
small-boned, spare, spindly, spiny, streamlined, stringy, svelte, sylphlike, thin, trim, underdeveloped,
underweight, waif-like, willowy, wiry, wispy

Physical Condition: Good

Pay attention to nuances. Muscle-bound, for example, might indicate that your character has
overworked his or her muscles into a state of inflexibility.
A to L
active, athletic, beefy, brawny, built, bullish, bullnecked, burly, defined, dense, developed, durable,
firm, fit, hale, hard, hardy, healthy, Herculean, hulking, hunky, husky, in shape, limber, lusty

M to R
meaty, mesomorphic, mighty, muscle-bound, muscular, nimble, pliant, powerful, powerfully built,
resilient, ripped, robust, rugged

S to W
shipshape, shredded, sinewy, solid, sound, stalwart [dated], strapping, strong, sturdy, substantial,
supple, taut, toned, tough, vigorous, well-built

Physical Condition: Poor

Note: in Great Britain, ropy indicates poor quality or health, whereas in North America, it’s more likely
to mean strong or fibrous.
A to F
ailing, anorexic, atrophied, battered, beat-up, brittle, broken, bruised, burnt, cadaverous, careworn,
crippled, crooked, crumbling, decomposed, decrepit, deformed, degenerating, deteriorating,
dilapidated, emaciated, etiolated, feeble, feverish, flimsy, fragile, frail, frangible

G to R
gaunt, haggard, half-starved, infirm, insubstantial, lethargic, maimed, malnourished, mangled,
neglected, out-of-shape, puny, ramshackle, rickety, ropy, rotting, runty

S to W
scalded, sickly, starved, underfed, undernourished, vulnerable, wasted, weak, weedy, withered,
worn-out

Shape
Look around you. Pick an object. Could you include it as a body shape? A woman might have a
chest flatter than your thesaurus, or perhaps your male protagonist resembles your upside-down
wastebasket.

B to R
barrel-chested, barrelesque, blocky, boobylicious, bootylicious, broad-shouldered, bulbous,
cylindrical, ectomorphic, endomorphic, flat, hourglass-shaped, inverted-triangular, limp,
mesomorphic, pear-shaped, pumpkinesque, pyramidal, rectangular, rotund, round

S to W
serpentine, shapeless, shapely, small-waisted, spherical, spidery, square, thick-waisted, top-heavy,
triangular, wasp-waisted

Height: Short
Let’s include that wastebasket again: knee-high to a wastebasket. Scrutinize your surroundings to
create fresh phrases.
A to R
belly-button-high, bijou, compact, dainty, diminutive, dwarfish, eensy, elfin, gnomish, itsy-bitsy, itty-
bitty, knee-high, knee-high to a wastebasket, knee-high to a pygmy, Lilliputian, little, low-slung,
midget, mini, miniature, packed-down, peewee, petite, pint-sized, pocket-sized, puny, pygmy, runty

S to W
sawed-off, shoulder-high, shrimpy, shriveled, shrunken, small, small in stature, small-scale, stubby,
stunted, teeny, teeny-weeny, tiny, undersized, vertically challenged, waist-high, wee

Height: Tall
Most people know that redwoods are tall, ergo, redwood-high. With a bit of acerbic word play, a tall
Polish stripper might be referred to as stripper-pole-ific.
B to L
big, biggish, colossal, gangling, gargantuan, giant, gigantic, ginormous, Goliath, huge, humongous,
immense, jumbo, king-sized, large, leggy, lofty, longish, long-shanked

M to W
mammoth, massive, mountain-high, of great stature, rangy, redwood-high, sizable, sky-high,
skyscraperesque, statuesque, stripper-pole-ific, towering, whopping