Definition of truculent
1 : aggressively self-assertive : belligerent
2 : scathingly harsh : vitriolic truculent criticism
4 : deadly, destructive
truculently
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Examples of truculent in a Sentence
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
Milton—in his prose an opinionated and truculent writer—remains a magnet for opinionated and truculent criticism. —Helen Vendler, New Republic, 30 July 2001
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
… 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
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
die-hard fans who became truculent and violent after their team's loss
a theater critic who was notorious for his titanically truculent reviews
Did You Know?
Truculent derives from "truculentus," a form of the Latin adjective trux, meaning "savage." It has been used in English since the 16th century to describe people or things that are cruel and ferocious, such as tyrannical leaders or wars, and has also come to mean "deadly or destructive" (as in "a truculent disease"). In current use, however, it has lost much of its etymological fierceness. It now frequently serves to describe speech or writing that is notably harsh (as in "truculent criticism") or a person who is notably self-assertive and surly (such as "a truculent schoolboy"). Some usage commentators have criticized these extended uses because they do not match the savagery of the word's original sense, but they are well-established and perfectly standard.
Origin and Etymology of truculent
Latin truculentus, from truc-, trux savage; perhaps akin to Middle Irish trú doomed person
First Known Use: circa 1540
TRUCULENT Defined for English Language Learners
truculent
playDefinition of truculent for English Language Learners
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: easily annoyed or angered and likely to argue
Learn More about truculent
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for truculent Spanish Central: Translation of truculent Nglish: Translation of truculent for Spanish speakers
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