Sample sentences for PUGNACIOUS

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Definition

quick to fight or argue

Nicknamed, "The Pit Bull", he is known as a pugnacious supporter of workers' rights.

pugnacious = quick to fight or argue

pugnacious = quick to fight or argue

For Glaucon, who is always the most pugnacious of men, was dissatisfied at Thrasymachus' retirement; he wanted to have the battle out.
Plato -- The Republic
They moved their heads pugnaciously and kept their shoulders braced.
Stephen Crane -- Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

pugnaciously = as though ready to fight

In the light from the dashboard, I see his jaw stiffen, a momentarily pugnacious look.
Tracy Kidder -- Mountains Beyond Mountains

pugnacious = appearing combative (as though ready to fight or argue)

pugnacious = quick to fight or argue

His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious.
John Steinbeck -- Of Mice and Men

pugnacious = combative (as though ready to argue or fight)

The latter was a small, alert, dark-eyed man about thirty years of age, very sturdily built, with thick black eyebrows and a strong, pugnacious face.
Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Hound of the Baskervilles

pugnacious = appearing combative (as though ready to fight or argue)

Pete, a tiger-striped tom weighing fifteen pounds, is a well-known character around Garden City, famous for his pugnacity, which was the cause of his current hospitalization; a battle lost to a boxer dog had left him with wounds necessitating both stitches and antibiotics.
Truman Capote -- In Cold Blood

pugnacity = quickness to fight

I catch only glimpses of him as the forest of grownups sway and shift in front of me, but I can make out the well-oiled, slicked-down, coal-black hair, and the pugnacious face, the wrinkled and baggy suit, the kind the men at the courthouse have on when you go beg the judge to let your daddy out of jail.
Rick Bragg -- All Over but the Shoutin'

pugnacious = appearing combative (as though ready to fight or argue)

His prosperous-looking belly that used to thrust out so pugnaciously and intimidate folks, sagged like a load suspended from his loins.
Zora Neale Hurston -- Their Eyes Were Watching God

pugnaciously = in a manner that looked ready for a fight

I never saw you so pugnacious before, mother.
Barrie, James Matthew -- Margaret Ogilvy
He put his hand in his pocket, failed to find what he wanted, and rushing past me went blundering noisily and pugnaciously downstairs.
H.G. Wells -- The Invisible Man
I rise; "Fight," I cry, "fight!" remembering the shape of my own nose, and strike with this spoon upon this table pugnaciously.'
Virginia Woolf -- The Waves
[secretly daunted, but rising from his knees with an air of reckless pugnacity] I ain't afraid of you.
George Bernard Shaw -- Man And Superman
He told Hamidullah to cheer up, all would end well; and Ham idullah did cheer up, and became pugnacious and sensible.
E.M. Forster -- A Passage to India
In Hope the effect is apparent only in a bristling, touchy, pugnacious attitude.
Eugene O'Neill -- The Iceman Cometh
"An evil day to receive a beautiful woman," The Admiral said, his voice surprisingly mild and mannered to issue from such a pugnacious face.
Pat Frank -- Alas, Babylon
As he made the demand he spat out a mouthful of blood and teeth and shoved his pugnacious face close to Oofty-Oofty.
Jack London -- Sea Wolf
He drove fast, pugnaciously, darting into empty spaces, nudging other cars out of their lanes.
Arundhati Roy -- The God of Small Things

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