Home North American English oval

Definition of oval in US English:

oval

adjective

Having a rounded and slightly elongated outline or shape like that of an egg.
‘her smooth oval face’
‘the game with the oval ball’
- ‘Her face was a delicate oval shape with slightly tilted amethyst eyes and a pert nose with full lips.’
- ‘Their bodies are longer and leaner, more snake-like, and their eyes are vertical oval shapes.’
- ‘Bright green jewel anemones grow out of orange sponges, and anemones are squeezed into oval shapes by the competition.’
- ‘The soup tureens in that service are of conventional oval shape.’
- ‘Although if the shape is oval I will be only too glad to include it on my list.’
- ‘The heads were done first by dabbing a round or oval shape.’
- ‘His charcoal eyes were encased in a slightly oval, tanned face.’
- ‘It has oval leaves and reddish-orange berries on long branches that have until recently been rigidly tied in against the wall.’
- ‘It is a large blond cookie of about a foot in length made with olive oil and shaped like an oval leaf.’
- ‘Men's models have slightly oval forms with double bridges, slim metal temples and steel fronts.’
- ‘They provide an abundance of flowers that emit a delicate, spicy scent which contracts nicely with the dark green, oval leaves.’
- ‘There are thumb inserts that you can put into the ball that come in round and oval shapes.’
- ‘It has oval leaves with a slightly serrated edge.’
- ‘It cost money to make those holes into oval shapes.’
- ‘Its convex, roughened dorsal surface has a mediolateral elongated oval outline.’
- ‘Once formed, blisters are large and tense, with a round or oval shape.’
- ‘The plant has smooth, shiny, oval leaves and tubular flowers.’
- ‘The normally oval spinal canal enlarges slightly by bending forward and narrows with standing and leaning back.’
- ‘Other schools played with different shapes and sizes of ball until the oval ball gained favour to facilitate handling and passing.’
- ‘The trees were tall and wide with large oval leaves.’
egg-shaped, ovoid, ovate, oviform, elliptical, ellipsoidal
View synonyms

noun

1A body, object, or design with an oval shape or outline.
‘cut out two small ovals from the felt’
- ‘The shape of a mirror is also important with rectangular, square or oval shapes each having different qualities.’
- ‘By the 1760s they had acquired lids and the oval gave way to square, octagonal, and hexagonal shapes as the century progressed.’
- ‘The perfect oval of the face is repeated by the line of the necklace and the bodice and the ruffled form of the sleeve.’
- ‘Variations on the plain oval include round shapes, boxes painted with decorative motifs, and boxes with handles.’
- ‘Most kids are drawing perfect ovals while others leave it blank.’
- ‘In others, repeated square shapes mutate into stretched diamonds, triangles and irregular ovals.’
- ‘As oil became the dominant medium, so the size of the palette increased, varying from batlike shapes to rectangles and ovals, often varying in thickness from tip to handle to improve the balance.’
- ‘She found it easily, as the humanities area was designed as a large oval, and she just had to keep walking in a circle to find the room.’
- ‘The House of Prayer is shaped like a squarish oval.’
- ‘In addition to square, rectangular, and circular crackers, I managed to find ovals, triangles, hexagons, stars, and even spheres, cubes, and cones.’
- ‘This small extension was shaped in an oval that fit perfectly around the right eye.’
- ‘Late-period circles are generally small rings of varying shapes and sizes although ovals predominate.’
- ‘Here, horseshoe shapes, ovals and rectangles are organized into four groups.’
- ‘The five basic geometric shapes are the circle, rectangle, square, triangle and the oval.’
- ‘The photographs will be imprinted on the pendants which can be made in four shapes - heart, oval, circle and hexagon.’
- ‘Keep in mind that frames consisting of a simple square, rectangle, oval or round shapes are classics that can work with everything.’
- ‘His deep reflecting eyes blinked back, two perfect ovals set as polished gems trying to communicate.’
- ‘Cross-sections are in the shape of circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, equilateral triangles or regular polygons.’
- ‘I sketched on the board the three geometric shapes (circle, oval and triangle) to be used.’
- ‘We then reviewed how to use ovals for the fish bodies and how to add a tail and fins.’
1. 1.1 An oval playing field or racing track.
  ‘Otherwise there is no point even walking out onto the oval.’
  ‘This structure was chosen because it is situated between sporting ovals, where spectators seek to shade themselves.’
  ‘Have you been maybe taking your training away from the oval more?’
  ‘If I stand on a tire, I can see maybe one-tenth of the rest of the oval.’
  ‘The principal jogged out of the gym and into the track oval outside.’
  ‘Hastings' five-furlong racing oval has not proved attractive to horsemen, and there is no room to expand the facility.’
  ‘You may have noticed Bundaberg's sporting ovals, cricket pitches and netball courts were unusually vacant yesterday.’
  ‘Goodyear's durable tires make track position paramount at tight ovals, such as Martinsville.’
  ‘Since the booths were arranged along the track oval, Marie decided to go through all the booths in a clockwise fashion.’
  ‘The stand's design was unusual at sporting ovals between the wars.’
  ‘When you're driving ovals at 200 mph, a good sense of balance is inarguably a wonderful thing to possess.’
  ‘The IRL, with its less-expensive, non-turbocharged engines, has proved that racing on ovals can be done safely without losing any excitement’
  ‘In Champ cars we race on road courses, street tracks and ovals and the guy that can cope best on all types of track will take the title.’
  ‘A car's setup is more important for road courses than for ovals.’
  ‘Sporting ovals are sometimes opened up as an overflow caravan park.’
  ‘For instance, he said, SFU could replace a speed skating oval with an indoor track and field after a few years.’
  ‘Dale watched for five minutes until it was clear that all the band was going to do was march endlessly around the track oval playing the same song over and over again.’
  ‘I just felt that racing full time on ovals wasn't something that I wanted to do.’
  ‘Wainman, who was the 1979 World Champion, took part in the event last year, which will give him an advantage on the tight indoor racing oval.’
  ‘Road courses are the only tracks on which NASCAR would use rain tires, but even the tires used on dry days differ from those used on ovals.’