Find the word definition

Crossword clues for ferocious

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
ferocious
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
most
▪ The most ferocious macho is a bisexual.
▪ As one of the original and most ferocious of the Cold Warriors, Nixon hardly offered an alternative to the doves.
▪ Striped marlin, one of the most ferocious and swiftest of hunters, often operate in groups of three or four.
▪ But of all the coarse assaults, by far the most ferocious came from the fundamentalists.
▪ It was Arab feminists who insisted on speaking aloud the oldest truths, bringing upon themselves the most ferocious repressions.
▪ Tapia might be the most ferocious fighter in the world.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Ferocious competition has pushed computer prices down.
▪ a ferocious hammerhead shark
▪ Defence lawyers claimed that the shooting was a spontaneous reaction, ferocious, but not part of a plan.
▪ Gang members have committed ferocious acts of violence.
▪ It was one of the most ferocious attacks on prison officers I have ever seen.
▪ The tiger is a ferocious beast which has already killed ten villagers.
▪ These bears look ferocious, but attacks by them are extremely rare.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Competition is ferocious among card issuers for new accounts.
▪ Fascinating Gubbio is best known as the place where Saint Francis tamed a ferocious wolf.
▪ Given the ferocious imagination of his subconscious, it's hardly surprising that his celluloid output is laced with lethal barbed wire.
▪ My parents, similarly attired, were replacing the lean-to in the ferocious wind.
▪ The ferocious defense actually would have begun long before the actual landings.
▪ Their faces were ferocious and intent.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ferocious

Ferocious \Fe*ro"cious\, a. [L. ferox, -ocis, fierce: cf. F. f['e]roce. See Ferocity.] Fierce; savage; wild; indicating cruelty; ravenous; rapacious; as, ferocious look or features; a ferocious lion.

The humbled power of a ferocious enemy.
--Lowth.

Syn: Ferocious, Fierce, Savage, Barbarous.

Usage: When these words are applied to human feelings or conduct, ferocious describes the disposition; fierce, the haste and violence of an act; barbarous, the coarseness and brutality by which it was marked; savage, the cruel and unfeeling spirit which it showed. A man is ferocious in his temper, fierce in his actions, barbarous in the manner of carrying out his purposes, savage in the spirit and feelings expressed in his words or deeds. -- Fe*ro"cious*ly, adv. -- Fe*ro"cious*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
ferocious

1640s, from Latin ferocis, oblique case of ferox "fierce, wild-looking" (see ferocity). Alternative ferocient (1650s) is seldom seen. Related: Ferociously; ferociousness.

Wiktionary
ferocious

a. mark by extreme and violent energy.

WordNet
ferocious

adj. marked by extreme and violent energy; "a ferocious beating"; "fierce fighting"; "a furious battle" [syn: fierce, furious, savage]

Usage examples of "ferocious".

One highly impressive exhibit of early state legislative power is afforded by the ferocious catalogue of legislation directed against the Tories, embracing acts of confiscation, bills of pains and penalties, even acts of attainder.

And Furvain, glancing for just a moment into his wine-bowl as though some poem might be lurking there, would draw a deep breath and instantaneously begin to recite a mock epic, in neatly balanced hexameter and the most elaborate of anapestic rhythms, about the desperate craving of a Pontifex for sausage made of steetmoy meat, and the sending of the laziest and most cowardly of the royal courtiers on a hunting expedition to the snowbound lair of that ferocious white-furred creature of northern Zimroel.

The red-haired Asturian was being carried down-river at a ferocious speed, but he angled across the current and reached up his arm as he was swept past the splintered end of the ruined bridge.

Swarms of ferocious honeybees that have been known to kill both humans and animals are moving toward the United States from Brazil at the rate of 200 miles a There seems to be no natural barrier to block the bees, and they could be in North America within four to six years, says a study financed by the Agriculture Department.

He removed his pipe from another pocket as they stepped into the well-appointed chamber, whose standing trophies included some of the most incredibly ferocious and fantastically striped Bengalese tigers.

I was in charge of a bofors gun manned by the most ferocious pack of modernist architecture students from the Architects Institute in Portland Place.

This Frankie Ferocious comes from over in Brooklyn, where he is considered a rising citizen in many respects, and by no means a guy to give hot foots to, especially as Frankie Ferocious has no sense of humor whatever.

With a ferocious swing he demolished the glass, with a fierce thrust he shattered the assembly of wheels and cogs behind.

This ferocious goblin lays himself out to catch the souls of bachelors, and so vigilant and alert is he that not a single unmarried Fijian ghost is known to have ever reached the mansions of the blest.

Pleased with their ferocious folkways, she had joined the game with no weapons save her own transvolutionary gifts, shifting just outside their space to make herself invisible in ambush, levitating in pursuit, killing with her nimbus.

As far as he knew the ferocious folk of the interior kept the produce of the forests and grassy spaces to themselves.

But for all its ferocious demeanour, the colossal flyer had greeted Magira with greathearted affection.

There was neither hesitation nor halfheartedness in that ferocious rush.

In any event, after several failures, armies dispatched by the Heian court finally inflicted decisive defeat on the Emishi in the early years of the ninth century and thus eliminated the threat posed by these ferocious tribesmen on the eastern frontier.

Preying continually upon the herbivora were the meat-eaters, large and small--wolves, hyaenadons, panthers, lions, tigers, and bear as well as several large and ferocious species of reptilian life.