His pugnacious tone indicated that they were not about to laugh at Xenophilius, despite the clear provocation. " Come and dance, " he added abruptly to Hermione.
Minister Adams took him for pugnacious and quarrelsome; the " Lives" of Russell, Gladstone, and Granville show him to have been good-tempered, conciliatory, avoiding quarrels.
YOU MIGHT THINK that for a political party that had just suffered two cycles of resounding defeat, the GOP strategy of pugnacious, all-out obstruction would carry big risks.
The Common Reader Volume 1 26 Essays on Jane Austen, George Eliot, Conrad, Montaigne and Others
Violent, pugnacious, and unscrupulous, Dr. Bentley survived these storms and agitations, and remained, though suspended from his degrees and deprived of his mastership, seated at the Lodge imperturbably.
As he made the demand he spat out a mouthful of blood and teeth and shoved his pugnacious face close to Oofty-Oofty. The Kanaka leaped backward to his bunk, to return with a second leap, flourishing a long knife.