iracund

comparative more iracund · superlative most iracund

1. rareAngry; irritable

   Dryasdust knows only that these Preussen were a strong-boned, iracund herdsman-and-fisher people; highly averse to be interfered with, in their religion especially.

   1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia: Called Frederick the Great, published 1870, page 80

   2 more examples

   And the 'steal Injun hoss!' iterated and reiterated by a dozen voices, and always with the most iracund emphasis, enabled Roland to form a proper conception of the sense in which his enemies held that offence, as well as of the great merits and wide-spread fame of his new ally, whose voice gad thrown the red-men into such a ferment.

   1863, Robert Montgomery Bird, edited by W. H. Ainsworth, Nick of the Woods: A Story of Kentucky, volume 1, page 93

   She thought the man in the ticket booth looked charmingly rotund and friendly (in reality he was a lazy, iracund man), the light rain flowed down drainpipes and dripped off the roof like the water of a baptism, where all, and not just the baby, were blessed by God.

   2011, Vivien Kelly, Two Red Shoes, unnumbered page

   Synonyms: irascible, choleric

2. rareCharacterized by anger; caused by anger; wrathful

   Nor does he [Dante] extract any other example of iracund murder or harm from the hundreds of cases available to him from Ajax, Achilles—nay, from Cain—down to his time.

   1965, Robert J. Clements, Dante After Seven Centuries, published 1967