- 1
Truculent describes a person, a mood, a tone or a reply that is bad-tempered and eager to argue — not just unhappy, but ready to push back at whatever you say. There is defiance in it. A truculent student does not simply refuse to answer; he answers in a way that you to say something about it. That combination of sulkiness and aggression is the heart of the word. Watch the two settings it lives in. About individuals, it usually means openly hostile and difficult, often in a situation where the person is supposed to cooperate — an interview, a classroom, a shop, a courtroom. About countries, armies or leaders, it means threatening and unwilling to negotiate: "a truculent response to the peace offer". It is a formal word, mostly written, and it sounds a bit old-fashioned in a well-read way; a student is far more likely to read it in a novel or a news analysis than to hear a friend use it. Common partners: a truculent *tone*, *manner*, *mood*, *reply*, *silence* (yes, a silence can be truculent — the refusal to answer is itself the argument). One more thing, because it is the kind of thing dictionaries : the Latin behind it meant *fierce, savage*, and English kept a shadow of that. Truculent is stronger than ** and stronger than *rude*; it implies a person who might actually go further.
好鬥的、蠻橫無理的、動不動就頂嘴的（形容態度、語氣、脾氣）
組成From Latin truculentus, "fierce, savage", from trux, "fierce, wild". The -ulent ending is the same one in *turbulent*, *opulent* and *fraudulent*: it means "full of" the thing named. So truculent originally described someone full of fierceness — which explains why the modern word feels heavier than plain bad temper.
同家族的字
- truculenceThe noun made from it; the quality of being truculent.
- truculentlyThe adverb; describes doing something in a truculent way.
- turbulentShares the Latin -ulentus ending meaning "full of" — turbulent is full of disturbance, truculent full of fierceness.
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
truculentadj/ˈtɹʌk.jʊ.lənt/
- 1
Cruel or savage.
- The truculent soldiers gave us a steely-eyed stare.
- She really was a most charming girl, and might have passed for a captive fairy, whom that truculent Ogre, Old Barley, had pressed into his service.
- 2
Defiant or uncompromising.
- In her turn, Helen Burns asked me to explain, and I proceeded forthwith to pour out, in my own way, the tale of my sufferings and resentments. Bitter and truculent when excited, I spoke as I felt, without reserve or softening.
- Rokoff assumed a truculent air, attempting by bravado to show how little he feared Tarzan’s threats.
- 3
Eager or quick to argue, fight or start a conflict.
- She might pity herself, but he must not pity her. She did not want any quarrel; she blamed him for wanting one, but she could not help assuming a truculent attitude.
- If he came too close to a she with a young baby, the former would bare her great fighting fangs and growl ominously, and occasionally a truculent young bull would snarl a warning if Tarzan approached while the former was eating.
- 4
Violent; rude; scathing; savage; harsh.
- Voltaire is never either gross or truculent.
- […] or again, the first whispering of love, dainty and witty and tender, to the girl he served a few days ago with sateen, or a gallant rescue of generalised beauty in distress from truculent insult or ravening dog.
- 5
obsoleterareDestructive; deadly.
- More or less truculent Plagues.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。