bookishPronunciation: /ˈbʊkɪʃ/Translate bookish | into Italian Definition of bookish adjective (of a person or way of life) devoted to reading and studying: a bookish, untidy boy the war proved the deepest trauma of a largely bookish life (of language or writing) literary in style or allusion: his Welsh was rather bookishDerivatives bookishly adverb bookishness noun bookish in other Oxford dictionaries Definition of bookish in the US English dictionary