truculent

Adjective

truculent (comparative more truculent, superlative most truculent)

1. Cruel or savage.
   • The truculent soldiers gave us a steely-eyed stare.
   • She really was a most charming girl, and might have passed for a captive fairy, whom that truculent Ogre, Old Barley, had pressed into his service.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   barbarous, ferocious, fierce, bowelless, brutal, compassionless, cruel, flagitious, demonic, despiteful

2. Defiant or uncompromising.
   • In her turn, Helen Burns asked me to explain, and I proceeded forthwith to pour out, in my own way, the tale of my sufferings and resentments. Bitter and truculent when excited, I spoke as I felt, without reserve or softening.1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VI, in Jane Eyre. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 102
   • Rokoff assumed a truculent air, attempting by bravado to show how little he feared Tarzan’s threats.1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg, published March 1915, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   inflexible, stubborn, unyielding, adamant, ardent, grim, untiring, bent on, bloody-minded, bullheaded

3. Eager or quick to argue, fight or start a conflict.
   • She might pity herself, but he must not pity her. She did not want any quarrel; she blamed him for wanting one, but she could not help assuming a truculent attitude.1877, David Magarshack, chapter 12, in Anna Karenina, part 6, translation of original by Leo Tolstoy
   • If he came too close to a she with a young baby, the former would bare her great fighting fangs and growl ominously, and occasionally a truculent young bull would snarl a warning if Tarzan approached while the former was eating.1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 10, in The Beasts of Tarzan, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published March 1916, →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   bellicose, belligerent, pugnacious, aggressive, antagonistic, assaultive, combative, martial, militaristic, philopolemic

4. Violent; rude; scathing; savage; harsh.
   • Voltaire is never either gross or truculent.1872, John Morley, Voltaire
   • […] or again, the first whispering of love, dainty and witty and tender, to the girl he served a few days ago with sateen, or a gallant rescue of generalised beauty in distress from truculent insult or ravening dog.1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 10, in The Wheels of Chance: A Holiday Adventure, London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent and Co.; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Co., →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   acerbic, caustic, vitriolic, vituperative

5. (obsolete, rare) Destructive; deadly.
   • More or less truculent Plagues.1665, Gideon Harvey, A Discourse of the Plague … with several waies for purifying the air in houses, streets