furibund

comparative more furibund · superlative most furibund

1. formalliteraryHaving a propensity to be furious; choleric, irate.

   Fie, frantike, fabulators, furibund, and fatuate, / Out, oblatrant, oblict, obstacle, and obsecate.

   1537, Wilfride Holme, On the Fall and Evil Success of Rebellion; quoted in Geo[rge] Steevens, “Act V”, in Annotations by Sam. Johnson and Geo. Steevens, and the Various Commentators, upon Midsummer Night’s Dream, Written by Will. Shakespeare (Bell’s Edition of Shakspere’s Works; 50), London: […] John Bell, […], 1787, →OCLC, page 87, line 150

   5 more examples

   Tibullus. O, terrible, windy words! / Gallus. A ſigne of a windy Braine. / Criſpinus. O—Oblatrant—Obcæcate—Furibund—Fatuate—Strenuous.— / Horace. Heer's a deale: Oblatrant, Obcæcate, Furibund, Fatuate, Strenuous. / Cæſar. Now, all's come vp, I trow. What a Tumult he had in his Belly!

   [1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […], London: […] [R. Bradock] for M[atthew] L[ownes] […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act IV

   Or burley Hero [Ajax the Great] Sev'nfold Targe who bore, / With Choler furibund, vindictive Steel / Plunging in Brutal Gore; [...]

   1730, Andrew Brice, Freedom: A Poem, Written in Time of Recess from the Rapacious Claws of Bailiffs, and Devouring Fangs of Goalers, […], Exon [Exeter, Devon]: […] [T]he author, […], →OCLC, page 80

   [...]—And so poor Louison Chabray, no asseveration or shrieks availing her, fair slim damsel, late in the arms of Royalty, has a garter round her neck, and furibund Amazons at each end; is about to perish so,—when two Bodyguards gallop up, indignantly dissipating; and rescue her.

   1837, Thomas Carlyle, “At Versailles”, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VII (The Insurrection of Women), page 266

   The story itself is a strange, wild, furibund thing—about Captain Ahab's vow of revenge against one Moby Dick. And who is Moby Dick? A fellow of a whale, who has made free with the captain's leg; [...]

   1853 July, “Sir Nathaniel” [pseudonym], “American Authorship. No. IV.—Herman Melville.”, in William Harrison Ainsworth, editor, The New Monthly Magazine, volume XCVIII, number CCCXCI, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 308

   But I soon discover that she grins at everything—at the fire that she lights, at the cloth she lays for dinner, at the medicine-bottles she brings upstairs, at the furibund visage of Mrs. Glutch, ready to drive whole baskets full of creases at her head every morning.

   1863, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Fragments of Personal Experience.—I. Laid Up in Lodgings.”, in My Miscellanies. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 130–131

   Synonyms: agitated, angry, annoyed, apoplectic, bad-tempered, berserk, big mad, blood-boiling · Antonyms: calm, steady, collected, composed, cool-headed, equable, equanimous, equanimitable