choleric, a.
(ˈkɒlərɪk)
Forms: 4 colrik, coloryk, 4–5 colerik(e, 4, 6 -yk(e, 6 -ycke, collerick(e, colloryke, colorycke, choloricke, -icque, 6–7 cholerique, -yke, -ike, cholleric(ke, 6–8 cholerick, 7 cholloricke, 7– choleric.
[a. F. cholérique, ad. L. cholericus bilious:—Gr. χολερικός of or relating to χολέρα cholera.]
† 1. Of persons: Having choler as the predominant humour; of bilious ‘complexion’, or temperament; bilious. Obs. exc. Hist.
| 1340 Ayenb. 157 Þe dyevel..asayleþ stranglakest..þane colrik mid ire and mid discord, þane sanguinen mid jolivete, etc. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 587 The Reue was a sclendre colerik man. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. x. (1495) 95 Colerik men been generally wrathful, in y⊇ body longe & sk[l]endre & lene. 1542 Boorde Dyetary viii. (1870) 245 Sanguyne and colorycke men. 1699 Dryden Fables Pref., [Homer and Virgil] being so different in their tempers, one choleric and sanguine, the other phlegmatic and melancholic. |
b. of the ‘complexion’ or temperament, etc.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. xiii. (1495) Mars..hath maystry ouer colera fyre and coleryk complexyon; he disposeth the soule..to wrathe..and to other coleryke passions. 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Man. 148 Colerycke and egre humours. 1609 C. Butler Fem. Mon. vi, The Bees..with their cholerike Complexion, which their very hue bewrayeth. |
† c. transf. Of hot or fiery nature. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 43 In Aries, the colerik hoote signe. 1675 Evelyn Terra (1729) 7 The common opinion is, that all hot, and choleric Grounds, are red or brown. |
† 2. Subject or liable to bilious disorder; bilious.
| 1563 T. Gale Antidot. ii. 74 In ceasynge of paynes in the goute of cholericke personnes. 1586 Cogan Haven Health ccxiii. (1636) 224 Honey is very..unwholesome for..such as be cholerick. 1634 T. Johnson Parey's Chirurg. i. vi. 10 Choleric men are of a pale or yellowish color. |
† b. of maladies, symptoms, etc. choleric passion: old name of cholera, sense 2.
| 1565–75 Cooper Thesaurus, Cholera, a troublous flixe and vomite..the choleryke passyon. 1590 Nashe Pasquil's Apol. i. C ij b, But for Cholericke diseases this scorching wether. 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 126 They..helpe the cholericke passion, which is a vehement purging of choler vpwards and downewards. 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden lxxi, It is very profitable in Cholerick Feavers. 1707 Floyer Pulse-Watch 379 The Serum and choleric Blood are mix'd..when the Vesica invades the Heart. |
† c. Causing choler, or biliousness. Obs.
| a 1535 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1071 Whan they ben rosted they ben somwhat more colloryke. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 19 What say you to a Neats foote?.. I feare it is too chollericke a meate. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 59 A cholerick parcel of food it is. |
3. Inclined to wrath, irascible, hot-tempered, passionate, fiery: these being the characteristics of the choleric ‘complexion’ or temperament.
| 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. clxxvii. 1101 The sharpest, the roughest and the cholerickest man y{supt} euer was. 1588 Marprel. Ep. (Arb.) 4 My L. of Winchester is very chollericke. 1605 Shakes. Lear i. i. 302 Infirme and cholericke yeares. 1793 Gouv. Morris in Sparks Life & Writ. (1832) II. 386 A choleric man beats the post which he has struck his head against. 1853 C. Brontë Villette xxxi. (1876) 353 You are patient, and I am choleric. |
4. In a passion, enraged, angry, wrathful. † to be choleric with: to be angry with. Obs.
| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. ii. 68, I durst haue denied that before you vvere so chollericke. 1593 ― 2 Hen. VI, i. ii. 51 What, what, my Lord? Are you so chollericke With Elianor, for telling but her dreame? 1641 Baker Chron. an. 1087 (1674) 30 Winning much money of him, Lewis grew cholerick, that he threw the chess men at Henry's face. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull i. iv, Mrs. Bull you must know, was very apt to be cholerick. |
b. As a characteristic of words and actions.
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 61 This quick cholerick challenge hee could not abandon. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. ii. 130 That in the Captaine's but a chollericke word, Which in the Souldier is flat blasphemie. 1615 Life Earl Essex in Sel. Harl. Misc. (1793) 161 The cannon..having discharged their cholerick errands. 1754 Richardson Grandison III. xiii. 98 An exertion of spirit, as he called a choleric excess. |
5. Of or pertaining to cholera; = choleraic.
| 1834 Good Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 226 The small intestines distended with an enormous quantity of choleric fluid. 1865 Reader No. 153. 631/3 The action of the choleric poison. 1882 Syd. Soc. Lex, s.v., Infantile choleric fever. |