ferocity

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Related to ferocity: excerpt, Dominion, insightful

fe·ro·cious

(fə-rō′shəs)

adj.

a. Extremely aggressive or violent: a ferocious attack dog.

b. Characterized by or showing extreme aggressiveness or violence: a ferocious glare; ferocious claws.

2. Extremely powerful or destructive: a ferocious gale.

3. Extreme in activity or feeling; intense: a ferocious demand for a product; ferocious courage.

[From Latin ferōx, ferōc-, fierce; see ghwer- in Indo-European roots.]

fe·ro′cious·ly adv.

fe·roc′i·ty (-rŏs′ĭ-tē), fe·ro′cious·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

fe•roc•i•ty

(fəˈrɒs ɪ ti)

n.

a ferocious quality or state; savage fierceness.

[1600–10; < Latin]

Ferocity

See Also: SCREAMS

Barked like an old sergeant —Frank Swinnerton
Fierce as a comet —John Milton
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action —Carl Sandburg
Fierce as a fever —Anon
Fierce as a lobster making one last lunge out of the pot —Norman Mailer
Fierce as hunger —Babette Deutsch
Fierce as vengeance —John Greenleaf Whittier
Fierce as young bulls —William Shakespeare
Fiery as tiger eyes —Jessamyn West
Growled … as a dog might do at a postman —Frank Swinnerton
Savage as a bear with a sore head —Frederick Marryat
Savage as a meat-ax —American colloquialism, attributed to Mid-south
(Hope) temptuous like a fire-cloud —Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(A fly is as) untamable as a hyena —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wild as a monkey —Robert Silverberg
Wild as a starved cat —Elizabeth Spencer
Wild as the vultures’ cry —Aeschylus
(Memories do not turn to dust. They live) wild as young colts —Elizabeth Spencer
(You’re) wild … just like a sea-bird —Clifford Odets

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

ferocity - the property of being wild or turbulent; "the storm's violence"

fierceness, furiousness, vehemence, violence, wildness, fury

intensiveness, intensity - high level or degree; the property of being intense

savageness, savagery - the property of being untamed and ferocious; "the coastline is littered with testaments to the savageness of the waters"; "a craving for barbaric splendor, for savagery and color and the throb of drums"

ferocity

noun savagery, violence, cruelty, brutality, ruthlessness, inhumanity, wildness, barbarity, viciousness, fierceness, rapacity, bloodthirstiness, savageness, ferociousness surprised by the ferocity of the attack

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

ferocity

noun

Exceptionally great concentration, power, or force, especially in activity:

depth (often used in plural), ferociousness, fierceness, fury, intensity, pitch, severity, vehemence, vehemency, violence.

Translations

Spanish / Español

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ferocity

[fəˈrɒsɪtɪ] N

1. (= savagery) [of person, animal, attack, battle] → ferocidad f

2. (= intensity) [of storm, wind, fire] → furia f; [of feelings] → intensidad f; [of criticism] → dureza f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

ferocious

(fəˈrouʃəs) adjective

fierce or savage. a ferocious animal.feroz

feˈrociously adverb

ferozmente

ferocity (fəˈrosəti) noun

ferocidad

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References in classic literature ?

The poetry of the Anglo-Saxons, after their civilisation and conversion, was of a different and softer character; but in the circumstances of Ulrica, she may be not unnaturally supposed to return to the wild strains which animated her forefathers during the time of Paganism and untamed ferocity.

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For a time, which seemed so long that the world grew gray with age and sin, and the haunted forest, having fulfilled its purpose in this monstrous culmination of its terrors, vanished out of his consciousness with all its sights and sounds, the apparition stood within a pace, regarding him with the mindless malevolence of a wild brute; then thrust its hands forward and sprang upon him with appalling ferocity! The act released his physical energies without unfettering his will; his mind was still spellbound, but his powerful body and agile limbs, endowed with a blind, insensate life of their own, resisted stoutly and well.

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Once old Sabor, crossing their path, sent them scurrying to the safety of the higher branches, for if she respected their number and their sharp fangs, they on their part held her cruel and mighty ferocity in equal esteem.

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That it is a beautiful animal there is no gainsaying, but if its size and colors are magnified here within Pellucidar, so is the ferocity of its disposition.

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But in the foamy confusion of their mixed and struggling hosts, the marksmen could not always hit their mark; and this brought about new revelations of the incredible ferocity of the foe.

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He would have heard of channels and sandbanks, of natural features of the land useful for sea-marks, of villages and tribes and modes of barter and precautions to take: with the instructive tales about native chiefs dyed more or less blue, whose character for greediness, ferocity, or amiability must have been expounded to him with that capacity for vivid language which seems joined naturally to the shadiness of moral character and recklessness of disposition.

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There were days when all the air was vexed with roars and squalls of ferocity and agony from the arena, until the last animal in the cages was excited and ill at ease.

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It was not long before a look of ferocity and of revenge was to be seen seated on the grim visages of most of the warriors, and each new and crafty allusion to the policy of extinguishing their enemies, was followed by fresh and less restrained bursts of approbation.

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As I was to learn, this is the fleetest animal on Mars, and owing to its intelligence, loyalty, and ferocity is used in hunting, in war, and as the protector of the Martian man.

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Strickland had the directness of the fanatic and the ferocity of the apostle.

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"The neighborhood of my ward continues to be pillaged by soldiers of the 3rd Corps who, not satisfied with taking from the unfortunate inhabitants hiding in the cellars the little they have left, even have the ferocity to wound them with their sabers, as I have repeatedly witnessed."

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Nevertheless, his ferocity and cruelties were so great and so unheard of that, after endless single murders, he killed a large number of the people of Rome and all those of Alexandria.