pugnacious

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pug·na·cious

(pŭg-nā′shəs)

adj.

Combative in nature. See Synonyms at belligerent.

[From Latin pugnāx, pugnāc-, from pugnāre, to fight, from pugnus, fist; see peuk- in Indo-European roots.]

pug·na′cious·ly adv.

pug·na′cious·ness, pug·nac′i·ty (-năs′ĭ-tē) n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

pugnacious

(pʌɡˈneɪʃəs)

adj

readily disposed to fight; belligerent

[C17: from Latin pugnāx]

pugˈnaciously adv

pugnacity, pugˈnaciousness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pug•na•cious

(pʌgˈneɪ ʃəs)

adj.

inclined to quarrel or fight readily; quarrelsome; belligerent; combative.

[1635–45; < Latin pugnāx, s. pugnāc-, adj. derivative of pugnāre to fight; see -acious]

pug•na′cious•ly, adv.

pug•nac′i•ty (-ˈnæs ɪ ti) pug•na′cious•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	pugnacious - tough and callous by virtue of experience hard-bitten, hard-boiled tough - not given to gentleness or sentimentality; "a tough character"
	2.	pugnacious - ready and able to resort to force or violence; "pugnacious spirits...lamented that there was so little prospect of an exhilarating disturbance"- Herman Melville; "they were rough and determined fighting men" rough aggressive - having or showing determination and energetic pursuit of your ends; "an aggressive businessman"; "an aggressive basketball player"; "he was aggressive and imperious; positive in his convictions"; "aggressive drivers"

pugnacious

adjective aggressive, contentious, irritable, belligerent, combative, petulant, antagonistic, argumentative, bellicose, irascible, quarrelsome, hot-tempered, choleric, disputatious He was in a pugnacious mood when he spoke to us.
quiet, calm, gentle, peaceful, conciliatory, pacific, placid, peace-loving, peaceable, placatory, irenic

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

pugnacious

adjective

Having or showing an eagerness to fight:

bellicose, belligerent, combative, contentious, hostile, militant, quarrelsome, scrappy, truculent, warlike.

Translations

kampflustig streitsüchtig

taistelunhaluinen

pugnace

pugnace combattivit...

pugnax

strijdlustig

pugnacious

[pʌgˈneɪʃəs] ADJ → pugnaz, agresivo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

pugnacious

[pʌgˈneɪʃəs] adj → pugnace

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

pugnacious

adj → kampfeslustig; (verbally) → streitsüchtig; expression, remark → herausfordernd; support, defence → hartnäckig; campaign → aggressiv

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

pugnacious

[pʌgˈneɪʃəs] adj → bellicoso/a, battagliero/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

"Gore's no fool; you needn't tell me that," he observed presently, in a pugnacious tone, as if poor Gritty had been urging that lawyer's capabilities; "but, you see, he isn't up to the law as Wakem is.

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The latter was a small, alert, dark-eyed man about thirty years of age, very sturdily built, with thick black eyebrows and a strong, pugnacious face.

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Fortunately, however, Mr Pyke confined himself to mere verbal smifligation, and they reached their box with no more serious interruption by the way, than a desire on the part of the same pugnacious gentleman to

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As a man Jonson, pugnacious, capricious, ill-mannered, sometimes surly, intemperate in drink and in other respects, is an object for only very qualified admiration; and as a writer he cannot properly be said to possess that indefinable thing, genius, which is essential to the truest greatness.

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In his shirt and trousers he was a comparatively slim gentleman, who walked across the bedroom to the bathroom with no more pugnacious purpose than that of washing himself.

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For once our pugnacious colleague was deaf to a challenge.

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His long, red moustache determined the character of his physiognomy, which struck me as pugnacious in

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He was a square-jawed, blunt-featured man with a pugnacious cock of the eyebrow.

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Brayne would pour supplies into the impoverished and pugnacious Church of France; he would support six Nationalist newspapers like The Guillotine.

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For Glaucon, who is always the most pugnacious of men, was dissatisfied at Thrasymachus' retirement; he wanted to have the battle out.

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For while those female whales are characteristically timid, the young males, or forty-barrel-bulls, as they call them, are by far the most pugnacious of all Leviathans, and proverbially the most dangerous to encounter; excepting those wondrous grey-headed, grizzled whales, sometimes met, and these will fight you like grim fiends exasperated by a penal gout.

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A short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great Leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered.