pugnacious

Also found in: Thesaurus, Legal.

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.

pugnacious

(pʌɡˈneɪʃəs)

adj

readily disposed to fight; belligerent

[C17: from Latin pugnāx]

pugˈnaciously adv

pugnacity, pugˈnaciousness n

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:

Switch to new thesaurus

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

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

pugnacious

[pʌgˈneɪʃəs] adj → pugnace

pugnacious

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

pugnacious

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

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.

View in context

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.

View in context

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

View in context

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.

View in context

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.

View in context

For once our pugnacious colleague was deaf to a challenge.

View in context

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

View in context

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

View in context

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

View in context

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

View in context

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.

View in context

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.