truculent

adj

Etymology: First attested circa 1540, from Middle French, from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).

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.”

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.”

   “Rokoff assumed a truculent air, attempting by bravado to show how little he feared Tarzan’s threats.”

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.”

   “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.”

4. Violent; rude; scathing; savage; harsh.

   “Voltaire is never either gross or truculent.”

   “[…] 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.”

5. Destructive; deadly.

   “More or less truculent Plagues.”