atrabiliary

Adjective

atrabiliary (comparative more atrabiliary, superlative most atrabiliary)

1. (obsolete) Of or relating to black bile.
   • A Cancer again is known by its renitency of touch, if it be mild it carries a black or livid colour outwards, so made by the peccant humour or atrabiliary juice; there's no heat felt on the touch, but rather a coldness in the part; […]1703, John Browne, The Surgeon's Assistant. In which is Plainly Discovered the True Origin of Most Diseases. Treating Particularly of the Plague, French Pox, Leprosie, &c. of the Biting of Mad Dogs...
   • […] 'Tis true, when once a Schirrus is formed in a glandular Part, no one can tell how it may terminate; becauſe various changes may ariſe from various Cauſes in the Conſtitution of the Perſon; and if the Juices ſhould degenerate into a highly acrid, or what the Ancients termed an atrabiliary...1753, William Norford, An Essay on the General Method of Treating Cancerous Tumours. In which the Opinions of some of the most Celebrated Authors, who have Writ on this Subject, are Examined, and...
2. Melancholic or hypochondriac; atrabilious.
   • ATRABIL′IARY, ATRABIL′IOUS, a. Melancholic, or hypochondriacal; from the supposed preponderance of black bile. – atrabiliary capsules, the renal or supra-renal glands or capsules.1856, John Ogilvie, editor, A Supplement to the Imperial Dictionary, English, Technological, and Scientific: Containing an Extensive Collection of Words, Terms, and Phrases, in the Various...
   • […] that chronic dissatisfaction at the imperfections of ordinary mortality and that yearning after the impossible incarnation of some superhuman ideal, which are characteristic of the typical "reformer," especially in his more atrabiliary moments.1890, The American Catholic Quarterly Review, volume 15, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hardy and Mahony, →OCLC, page 105