bellicose

From Middle English bellicose,[1] from Latin bellicosus.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɛlɪkoʊs/, /ˈbɛləkoʊs/

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bellicose (comparative more bellicose, superlative most bellicose)

1. Warlike in nature; aggressive; hostile.
   • 1996 March 15, Pringle, James, “Peking sends out mixed signals”, in The Times‎, number 65,528, ISSN 0140-0460, OCLC 502384265, Overseas News, page 14, column 8:

     CHINA sent both bellicose and conciliatory signals yesterday as tension continued in the Taiwan Strait over Chinese military exercises and the deployment of US naval battle groups.

   • 2012 July 12, Sam Adams, “Ice Age: Continental Drift”, in AV Club:

     The core Ice Age cast—wooly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano), sabertooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary), and sloth Sid (John Leguizamo)—are set adrift, sailing the high seas on a chunk of ice until they collide with a bellicose primate (Peter Dinklage).

2. Showing or having the impulse to be combative.

• See also Thesaurus:combative

• pacific

• trigger-happy
• warmonger

• antebellum
• bellicosity
• bellicism
• belligerent
• Bellona
• postbellum
• rebel
• rebellion

bellicose f pl

1. feminine plural of bellicoso

bellicōse

1. vocative masculine singular of bellicōsus

• bellicose in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)