truculent

tru·cu·lent

adjective \ˈtrə-kyə-lənt also ˈtrü-\

Definition of TRUCULENT

1

: feeling or displaying ferocity : cruel, savage

2

: deadly, destructive

3

: scathingly harsh : vitriolic <truculent criticism>

4

: aggressively self-assertive : belligerent

— tru·cu·lent·ly adverb

Examples of TRUCULENT

1. <die-hard fans who became truculent and violent after their team's loss>
2. <a theater critic who was notorious for his titanically truculent reviews>
3. The hard work is to demonstrate exactly how the outsize Churchillian personality, so truculent, so impulsive, so often profoundly wrongheaded, became, in the dark spring of 1940, just what was needed for national survival. —Simon Schama, New York Review of Books, 28 Feb. 2002
4. Milton—in his prose an opinionated and truculent writer—remains a magnet for opinionated and truculent criticism. —Helen Vendler, New Republic, 30 July 2001
5. Within a year of publishing The Female Eunuch, she had debated Norman Mailer in a truculent disputation at Town Hall in New York, turned up on the cover of Life magazine as the “saucy feminist that even men like,” and inspired innumerable women to stop wearing underpants. —Margaret Talbot, New Republic, 31 May 1999
6. … in the breast pocket of her police uniform she carried a small silver figurine of Durga, the Hindu goddess of shakti: power and strength. Defiant and truculent, she flashed a cheeky grin. —Mary Anne Weaver, Atlantic, November 1996
7. Challenged to a fight by a truculent layabout on the playing fields of St. James's primary school one Saturday, he had replied to his aggressor's taunts with his own war cries … —Wole Soyinka, Isara, 1989

Origin of TRUCULENT

Latin truculentus, from truc-, trux savage; perhaps akin to Middle Irish trú doomed person

First Known Use: circa 1540

Related to TRUCULENT

Synonyms

aggressive, agonistic, argumentative, assaultive, bellicose, brawly, chippy, combative, confrontational, contentious, discordant, disputatious, feisty, gladiatorial, militant, pugnacious, quarrelsome, scrappy, belligerent, warlike

Antonyms

nonaggressive, nonbelligerent, pacific, peaceable, peaceful, unbelligerent, uncombative, uncontentious

Related Words

antagonistic, fierce, hostile, hot-tempered; acidic, bearish, bilious, bristly, choleric, crabby, cranky, cross, disagreeable, dyspeptic, fractious, fretful, grouchy, grumpy, huffy, ill-humored, ill-natured, ill-tempered, irascible, irritable, ornery, peevish, pettish, petulant, prickly, querulous, rude, snappish, snappy, stroppy [British], surly, testy, touchy, ugly, waspish; savage, vicious; battling, fighting, warring

Near Antonyms

anti-imperialist, antimilitarist, unwarlike; affable, amiable, amicable, benevolent, complaisant, conciliatory, cordial, easygoing, friendly, genial, good-natured, good-tempered, gracious, ingratiating, kindhearted, obliging, pleasant, sociable; calm, quiet, relaxed, serene, tranquil; benign, gentle, kindly, mild