as in irritable
having or showing a habitually bad temper
a bilious old dog who snaps at everyone
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of bilious
Her women’s expressions are sardonic, humorous, perplexed, or even slightly bilious, and all of them are versions of herself.
—
Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, 20 Apr. 2024
Color is a bilious miasma, golden tones sliding into flashes of brightness that collapse into queasy hues.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
The role of the cranky academic could easily be a stock character, but Giamatti invests the role with bilious wit as well as a few fleeting glimpses of vulnerability.
—Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
The only act that still holds our attention is deranged Trump, the bilious conspiracy theorist immortalized in Sarah Cooper videos.
—Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 28 Aug. 2020
See all Example Sentences for bilious 
Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, 20 Apr. 2024
Color is a bilious miasma, golden tones sliding into flashes of brightness that collapse into queasy hues.
—Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
The role of the cranky academic could easily be a stock character, but Giamatti invests the role with bilious wit as well as a few fleeting glimpses of vulnerability.
—Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
The only act that still holds our attention is deranged Trump, the bilious conspiracy theorist immortalized in Sarah Cooper videos.
—Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 28 Aug. 2020
See all Example Sentences for bilious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bilious
Adjective
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By the end, Liverpool’s players seemed tired and Klopp was irritable, clearly in need of a rest.—
Simon Hughes,
The Athletic,
20 Jan. 2025
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The trio’s sixth record is charmingly irritable in both of its moods: hopped up on fluffy coffee while cracking baseball jokes, or dragging out downbeats and lamenting power structures to goad listeners with mounting anticipation.—
Madison Bloom,
Pitchfork,
4 Dec. 2024
Adjective
-
The return of Donald Trump is readily evident today with reporters once again waking up to an angry presidential social media post, this time over a moment that went viral.—
Ted Johnson,
Deadline,
22 Jan. 2025
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Trump refused to accept Biden's victory in the 2020 election and his animosity toward Biden culminated in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, during which mobs of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol after Trump urged them to stop Congress from certifying Biden's electoral victory.—
Kristen Waggoner,
Newsweek,
22 Jan. 2025
Adjective
-
And while there is enough splenetic wit and manic detail to generate obsessive fandom (entire sections of Web sites are dedicated to deciphering just what Kenny is mumbling), subjects like alien abduction, genetic engineering, and Kathie Lee are hardly original targets for satire.—
Chris Norris,
SPIN,
13 Aug. 2022
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Meanwhile, the commentator and controversialist Piers Morgan, an obsessively close observer and relentless critic of Meghan, inevitably waded in with his usual splenetic views.—
Sarah Lyall,
New York Times,
17 Sep. 2022
Adjective
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The fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades consumed not only trees, brush and timber from people’s homes but also lead acid car batteries, plastic pipes, synthetic furniture, paint and untold other potential sources of contamination.—
Jack Healy,
New York Times,
20 Jan. 2025
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Since azaleas are acid soil-loving plants, pine needles, aged pine bark, or leaf mold are ideal mulches.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
Southern Living,
19 Dec. 2024
Adjective
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Sometimes that means confronting disagreeable people.—
David Plazas,
The Tennessean,
24 Apr. 2024
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The most important reason to avoid obsessing over China’s disagreeable regime, however, is that this fixation threatens a core U.S. advantage: Washington’s wide network of partners and allies.—
Evan S. Medeiros,
Foreign Affairs,
8 July 2021
Adjective
-
Sunrise on the Reaping will follow a young Haymitch, who later becomes the cantankerous mentor of District 12’s famous tributes.—
Lizz Schumer,
People.com,
18 Jan. 2025
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During his first term, Mr. Trump functioned less as a coach calling plays and more as a cantankerous owner demanding that his team throw out the entire playbook in the fourth quarter.—
Catie Edmondson,
New York Times,
10 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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The offensive line, in Monken’s estimation, is the most talented and possibly most ornery unit he’s had at West Point, all the way down to wrestling each other to settle arguments about who’s tougher.—
Brian Hamilton,
The Athletic,
21 Nov. 2024
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They’re led by John Dutton III, an ornery character who nevertheless carries the kind of gravitas that only a veteran movie star like Kevin Costner can bring.—
Noel Murray,
Vulture,
18 Nov. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near bilious
Cite this Entry
“Bilious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bilious. Accessed 31 Jan. 2025.
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