pugilist
UK/ˈpjuː.d͡ʒɪlɪst//ˈpju(ː).d͡ʒəlɪst/
pugilist noun: one who fights with their fists, especially a professional prize fighter; a boxer.
Noun
pugilist (plural pugilists)
- One who fights with their fists, especially a professional prize fighter; a boxer.
- I laugh and hoot at ye, ye cricket-players, ye pugilists, ye deaf Burkes and blind Bendigoes!1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
- In 1925, boxer shorts were unleashed on the world: loose-fitting underwear for men, featuring an elastic waistband inspired by the shorts worn by boxers. It was underwear for the inner pugilist.2018 August 9, Alan Burdick, “Science has Resolved the Question of Boxers vs. Briefs”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020
- Synonyms:
- pug
- One who engages in rhetorical attacks, for himself or on behalf of another.
- President Obama's style leaves liberal activists in the Democratic Party cold. They prefer a pugilist fighting for principle over a pragmatist agreeing to compromises. Can the president reignite the enthusiasm of his party's core supporters by November?2010, Kirk Victor, National Journal, volume 42, number 35, page 4
- A pugilist for the modern movement in the arts, [Edith] Sitwell was often in demand as a speaker, and she could fill a room. On 8 May 1923, she debated with the poet Alfred Noyes at the London School of Economics to raise money for the Hospitals of London Appeal. Sitwell associated Noyes with J. C....2011, Richard Greene, “Chapter 12: Gertrude”, in Edith Sitwell: Avant Garde Poet, English Genius, Little, Brown, →ISBN
pugilist meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
pugilist in Tamil
- குத்துச்சண்டையன், குத்துச் சண்டைப் போட்டி, பைல்வான்
pugilist in Urdu
- مکہ باز
pugilist in Bengali
- মুষ্টিযোদ্ধা, বক্সার
pugilist in Malayalam
- fighter, boxer, prizefighter
- മല്ലയോദ്ധാവ്, ഗുസ്തിക്കാരൻ, അങ്കക്കാരൻ, മല്ലൻ, ശൂരൻ, മുഷ്ടികൻ
More languagesFewer languages
- pugilist in Arabic
- مُلَاكِم mulākim
- pugilist in Malay
- peninju, ahli tinju
- pugilist in Persian
- بوکسور boksor
- pugilist in Thai
- นักมวย nák-muai
Examples of pugilist in a sentence
- A pugilist for the modern movement in the arts, [Edith] Sitwell was often in demand as a speaker, and she could fill a room.2011, Richard Greene, “Chapter 12: Gertrude”, in Edith Sitwell: Avant Garde Poet, English Genius, Little, Brown, →ISBN:
- Patel has a long record as a fierce pugilist for Mr.2025 January 31, Cameron Joseph, “Why Republicans blasted Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. – and bear-hugged Kash Patel”, in The Christian Science...
- President Nixon tried to make leaders of communist bloc countries believe he was a volatile, irrational pugilist.2025 April 16, Laurent Belsie, “Why Trump’s ‘madman theory’ tactics could run aground amid trade reversals”, in The Christian Science...
Synonyms of pugilist
Forms of pugilist
| plural | pugilists |
|---|
Origin of pugilist
From Latin pugil (“boxer”) + -ist, related to pugnus (“fist”), from Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“prick, punch”). Compare contemporary pugilism (“boxing”) (1791).
Words formed from pugilist
Questions about pugilist
- What does pugilist mean?
- Pugilist means one who fights with their fists, especially a professional prize fighter; a boxer.
- What is pugilist in Tamil?
- Pugilist in Tamil is குத்துச்சண்டையன், குத்துச் சண்டைப் போட்டி, பைல்வான். See Pugilist meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use pugilist in a sentence?
- A pugilist for the modern movement in the arts, [Edith] Sitwell was often in demand as a speaker, and she could fill a room.
- What part of speech is pugilist?
- Pugilist is a noun.
- How do you pronounce pugilist?
- Pugilist is pronounced /ˈpjuː.d͡ʒɪlɪst/ (UK).
- What is the plural of pugilist?
- The plural of pugilist is pugilists.
Words near pugilist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pugilist (page history and authors); pugilist (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pugilist (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pugilist (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pugilist (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-pugilist.oga.
Cite this entry: “pugilist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pugilist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.