wrathful, a.
(ˈrɒθfʊl, ˈrɔːθ-)
[f. wrath n. + -ful. Cf. wrethful a., wrothful a.]
1. Of persons, etc.: Harbouring wrath; full of anger; enraged, incensed.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter xvii. 51 Mi leser artou..Fra mi faes ben wrathful ai. c 1330 Spec. Gy de Warw. 262 Þeder he wole lihten adoun Wraþfful..as a lioun. 1388 Wyclif Prov. xv. 18 A wrathful man reisith chidyngis. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. xii. (Bodl. MS.), Some [bees] beþ..foule to siȝt and more wraþfulle þanne oþer. c 1430 in Babees Bk. 12 [Do not be] to wielde, ne to wraþful, neiþer waaste. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 758 He was malicious, wrathfull, enuyous. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 18 Al the frushe and leauings of Greeks, of wrathful Achilles. 1624 Milton Ps. cxxxvi. 10 O let us his praises tell, That doth the wrathfull tyrants quell. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 344 The Bees, a wrathful Race. 1697 ― æneis viii. 81 With sacrifice the wrathful queen appease. a 1718 Prior 2nd Hymn of Callimachus 22 Lest wrathful the far-shooting God emitt His fatal Arrows. 1775 Adair Amer. Ind. 303 They hung down their heads, and looked gloomy and wrathful. 1846 W. H. Mill Five Serm. (1848) 116 Describing Himself as wrathful against the determined sinner. 1877 ‘Rita’ Vivienne i. viii, Her heart was wrathful and indignant. 1892 A. E. Lee Hist. Columbus, Ohio I. 315 The tollgates..were torn away by wrathful citizens. |
b. transf. Of things.
| 1563 Sackville Induct. Mirr. Mag. i, The wrathful winter prochinge on a-pace. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. ii. 30 Thousand furies wait on wrathfull sword. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. ii. 902 Thou hast felt the rod Of the revenging wrathfull hand of God. 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. ii. 43 The wrathfull Skies Gallow the very wanderers of the darke. 1697 Dryden æneis ix. 461 Nor with less Rage Euryalus employs The wrathful Sword, or fewer Foes destroys. 1709 Steele Tatler No 38 ¶3 They stripp'd and..fought full fairly with their wrathful Hands. 1727 Thomson Summer 741 Unusual Darkness..gains The whole Possession of the Air, sur⁓charg'd With wrathful Vapour. a 1835 Mrs. Hemans Treasures of Deep ii, Sweep o'er thy spoils, thou wild and wrathful main. 1841 Dickens Barn. Rudge lvi, A threatening light..which showed like a wrathful sunset. |
2. Marked or characterized by, expressive of, of the nature of, wrath or anger.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 98 Full of ymaginacion Of dredes and of wrathful thoghtes, He fret himselven al to noghtes. c 1400 26 Pol. Poems xx. 77 Þan comeþ she hom in wraþþeful hete. 14.. Of Manners 8 in Babees-bk. 34 Of wraþful wordis euermore be ware. 1514 Barclay Egloges (1570) B iv/1 Better is..a small handfull with rest and sure pleasaunce, Then twenty dishes with wrathfull countenaunce. 1535 Coverdale 1 Macc. ii. 49 Now is the tyme of destruccion and wrathfull displeasure. 1610 Mirr. for Mag. 630 Ioue in the tempest of his wrathfull mood Powr'd downe his wreake vpon my wretched hed. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows iii. §3. 186 Wrathfull and revengefull affections. 1716 Pope Iliad v. 1092 Him.. with a wrathful Look The Lord of Thunders view'd. 1834 Pringle Afr. Sh. vii. 252 The tremendous screams of their wrathful voices. 1900 Longm. Mag. March 452 His accelerated and somewhat wrathful departure from Brackenhurst. |
| Comb. 1885 C. J. Lyall Anc. Arab. Poet. 5 A lion wrathful-eyed. |