bilious

Adjective

bilious (comparative more bilious, superlative most bilious)

1. Of or pertaining to something containing or consisting of bile.
2. Resembling bile, especially in color.
   • Does money fail?—come to my mint—coin paper,
     Till gold be at a discount, and ashamed
     To show his bilious face, go purge himself,
     In emulation of her vestal whiteness.1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts
   • His complexion was pale, not of that deadly pallor which is a kind of neutral beauty, but of a bilious, yellow hue; his colorless hair was short and scarcely extended beyond the circle formed by the hat around his head, and his light blue eyes seemed destitute of any expression.1845, Alexandre Dumas, chapter 31, in Twenty Years After
3. Suffering from real or supposed liver disorder, especially excessive secretions of bile.
   • Perry tells me that Mr. Cole never touches malt liquor. You would not think it to look at him, but he is bilious—Mr. Cole is very bilious.1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume II, chapter 7
4. Peevishly ill-humored, irritable or bad tempered; irascible.
   • The glorified spirit of a great statesman and philosopher dawdling, like a bilious old Nabob at a watering-place, over quarterly reviews and novels—dropping in to pay long calls—making excursions in search of the picturesque!1830 January, Thomas Macaulay, “[Review of] Southey's Colloquies on Society”, in The Edinburgh Review, page 536
   • The boarders, sharp-tongued bilious widows, pursued the only man in the establishment, a mild, bald creature who worked in La Samaritaine […]1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days

   Synonyms:

   choleric, irascible, peevish, testy, cranky, splenetic

   Antonyms:

   pleasant, amiable, good-natured, genial, even-tempered