irascible
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪˈɹæs.ɪ.bəl/
ipa: /ɪˈɹæs.ə.bəl/
ipa: /aɪˈɹæs.ɪ.bəl/
rhymes: -ɪbəl
Forms: form: more irascible
form: most irascible
Etymology: From Middle English, from Old French irascible, from Late Latin īrāscibilis, from Latin īrāscī (“to be angry, enraged”) + -bilis.
Senses: examples: text: The divine Plato, whose doctrines are not sufficiently attended to by philosophers of the present age, allows to every man three souls—one, immortal and rational, seated in the brain, that it may overlook and regulate the body—a second consisting of the surly and irascible passions, which like belligerent powers lie encamped around the heart[…]
ref: 1809, Diedrich Knickerbocker [pseudonym; Washington Irving], chapter II, in A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Inskeep & Bradford, […], →OCLC, book III, page 132:
text: Like some poor devils ashore that happen to know an irascible great man, they make distant unobtrusive salutations to him in the street, lest if they pursued the acquaintance further, they might receive a summary thump for their presumption.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Affidavit”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 26:
text: I am naturally irascible, and if I could have shaken this negative gentleman vigorously, the relief would have been immense.
ref: 1863 May 22 – 1863 June 26, L[ouisa] M[ay] Alcott, “Obtaining Supplies”, in Hospital Sketches, Boston, Mass.: James Redpath, […], published August 1863, →OCLC, page 15:
text: […] a never idle man of great physical strength and extremely irascible—did he not fling a badly baked plum pudding through the window upon Christmas Day?
ref: 1922, W[illiam] B[utler] Yeats, chapter XII, in The Trembling of the Veil, London: Privately printed for subscribers only by T[homas] Werner Laurie, Ltd., →OCLC, book I (Four Years 1887–1891), page 31:
text: Alan Greenspan was on an irascible roll last week, first dissing everyone who holds a fixed-rate mortgage — suckers! — and later picking on folks who collect Social Security: Get back to work, Grandma.
ref: 2004 February 29, Daniel Kadlec, “Why He’s Meanspan”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2013:
synonyms: word: cantankerous
word: choleric
word: cranky
word: bad-tempered
word: ill-tempered
word: hot-tempered
word: atrabilious
word: liverish
word: bad-tempered
word: fractious
word: bilious
word: bitchy
word: brainish
word: cantankerous
word: carnaptious
word: crabbit
word: crabby
word: cranky
word: crotchety
word: dyspeptic
word: edgy
word: fantoddish
word: fiery
word: fretful
word: grumpy
word: grotchy
word: grouchy
word: hissy
word: hot-livered
word: hot-tempered
word: hotheaded
word: huffy
word: humpy
word: ill-natured
word: ill-tempered
word: irascible
word: irritable
word: out of sorts
word: ornery (chiefly US)}
word: peevish
word: pettish
word: petulant
word: prickly
word: quick-tempered
word: querulous
word: raspy
word: ratty
word: short-tempered
word: snappish
word: snappy
word: snippety
word: snippish
word: snippy
word: snitchy
word: splenetic
word: stressy
word: surly
word: testy
word: tetchy
word: tetty
word: thin-skinned
word: thorny
word: touchy
word: twitchy
word: umbrageous
word: waspish
glosses: Easily provoked to outbursts of anger; irritable.
examples: text: The irascible and concupiscible appetites are distinguished by different aspects of their objects. The object of the concupiscible faculty "is sensible good or evil, simply apprehended as such" while good and evil considered as "arduous or difficult … is the object of the irascible faculty."
ref: 2015, Jeffrey Froula, “Aquinas on the Moral Neutrality of the Passion of Despair”, in New Blackfriars:
topics: lifestyle
religion
theology
glosses: Relating to the irascible passions
Derived terms: irascibility
irascibleness
irascibly
unirascible
Related terms: irate
ire