truculently

comparative more truculently · superlative most truculently

1. With aggression; savagely.

   `What's wrong with that?' he demanded truculently.

   1965, James Holledge, What Makes a Call Girl?, London: Horwitz Publications, page 128

   4 more examples

   "It's no use your staying here, because I'm not going to copper anybody," said the woman truculently. "My lodgers are respectable people; they keep themselves to themselves, and I keep myself to myself.[…]"

   1923, Edgar Wallace, chapter XXXVII, in The Missing Million, London: John Long, […], published 1927, →OCLC, page 211

   After working hard for a couple of weeks he suddenly downed tools and truculently demanded thirty shillings.

   1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 71

   Truculently they squared up to each other but kept just out of fighting distance?

   1954, William Golding, “chapter 11”, in Lord of the Flies

   It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face. Toberman was disconcerted. ‘What's the matter?’ he demanded truculently.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   Synonyms: aggressively, belligerently, cruelly, defiantly, ferociously, savagely