What does "horn-rimmed" mean?

Having the frames made from horn or tortoiseshell or a material that resembles it, and characterized by their bold appearance on the wearer's face, in contrast to metal frames, which appear less pronounced.

Horn-rimmed

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1
Having the frames made from horn or tortoiseshell or a material that resembles it, and characterized by their bold appearance on the wearer's face, in contrast to metal frames, which appear less pronounced. not-comparable
"A little bald-headed man with huge horn-rimmed spectacles, and a very handsome and athletic youth in a blue lounge-suit completed the group."

Adjective

1
having the frame made of horn or tortoise shell or plastic that simulates either wordnet

Example

More examples

"Tom looks so much better now that he's swapped his horn-rimmed glasses for the latest style."

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.