Synonyms for pugnacious
- aggressive
- antagonistic
- argumentative
- bellicose
- brawling
- cantankerous
- chip on shoulder
- choleric
- combative
- contentious
- defiant
- disputatious
- have a bone to pick
- hot-tempered
- irascible
- irritable
- itching to fight
- militant
- petulant
- pushing
- pushy
- quarrelsome
- ready to fight
- rebellious
- salty
- scrappy
- self-assertive
- truculent
- warlike
Antonyms for pugnacious
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR PUGNACIOUS
He went out of Onteora, that summer, in a blaze of pugnacious glory.
They are fierce, pugnacious animals, and are said to be more than a match for a bear.
The general disposition was choleric, pugnacious, litigious.
Some one produced a bottle and offered the pugnacious one a drink.
Hell was supposed to be very hot, very red, full of pugnacious demons.
It is vicious and pugnacious and will fight snakes of any size.
Never was there a more pig-headed, arbitrary, positive, pugnacious fellow.
"Get about your own business and leave us alone," advised the pugnacious chap.
The Scotch are certainly a most pugnacious people; their whole history proves it.
“Wait,” returned the more experienced and pugnacious prelate.
WORD ORIGIN
1640s, a back-formation from pugnacity or else from Latin pugnacis, genitive of pugnax "combative, fond of fighting," from pugnare "to fight," especially with the fists, "contend against," from pugnus "a fist," from PIE *pung-, nasalized form of root *peuk-, *peug- "to stick, stab, to prick" (cf. Greek pyx "with clenched fist," pygme "fist, boxing," pyktes "boxer;" Latin pungere "to pierce, prick").