pugnacious

comparative more pugnacious · superlative most pugnacious

1. Having a tendency to argue or fight; aggressive, combative.

   Plato affirms Idees; / But Ariſtotle vvith his pugnacious race / As idle figments ſtifly them denies.

   1642, H[enry] M[ore], “ΑΝΤΙΜΟΝΟΨΥΧΙΑ [Antimonopsychia], or That All Souls are Not One”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ [Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, →OCLC, , stanza 14, page 38

   5 more examples

   Not that the doctor was a bully, or even pugnacious, in the usual sense of the word; he had no disposition to provoke a fight, no propense love of quarrelling.

   1858, Anthony Trollope, “Dr. Thorne”, in Doctor Thorne. […], volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 53

   As he made the demand he spat out a mouthful of blood and teeth and shoved his pugnacious face close to Oofty-Oofty.

   1904, Jack London, chapter XV, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 138

   In the face of bad news [William] Churchill normally became even more pugnacious, always wanting to respond to defeat by going on the attack.

   2002 December 2, Ken Follett, Hornet Flight, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Dutton, →ISBN, page 200

   [I]n the 575 days since [Oscar] Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, there has been an unseemly scramble to construct revisionist histories, to identify evidence beneath that placid exterior of a pugnacious, hair-trigger personality.

   2014 September 13, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner’s punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, page S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, published 21 October 2014, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 15 Jul 2025, Sport section

   Of course the Johnston swings around to engage the entire flotilla, and, despite taking several more hits, Johnston successfully forces away the first two ships, which leads to the entire squadron taking a detour to avoid the single pugnacious ship.

   2019 February 27, Drachinifel [pseudonym], 29:50 from the start, in The Battle of Samar – Odds? What are Those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022

   Synonyms: bellicose, belligerent, aggressive, antagonistic, assaultive, bellicose, belligerent, combative · Antonyms: unpugnacious, calm, steady, collected, composed, cool-headed, equable, equanimous