truculence

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Noun

truculence (uncountable)

1. The state of being truculent; eagerness to fight; ferocity.
   • 1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Chapter 7,

     To these provincial autocrats, before whom the peaceable population of all classes had been accustomed to tremble, the reserve of that English-looking engineer caused an uneasiness which swung to and fro between cringing and truculence.

   • 1930, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Chapter 8, p. 97,

     Dundy’s fists were clenched in front of his body and his feet were planted firm and a little apart on the floor, but the truculence in his face was modified by thin rims of white showing between green irises and upper eyelids.

Synonyms

• aggressiveness
• defiance
• ferociousness
• savageness
• truculency

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