Dictionary

belligerently en · ADV

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English belligerent Middle English -ly English -ly English belligerently From belligerent + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a belligerent manner; with aggressive hostility.
   • They swaggered unsteadily but belligerently toward the bar and looked at Pete with bleared and blinking eyes. 1896, Stephen Crane, chapter 11, in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, New York: Appleton, pages 88–89:
   • In truth, Mrs. Lish’s charge of anti-Semitism had backfired with a number of the faculty, who were quite belligerently anti-Semitic themselves. 1989, John Irving, chapter 7, in A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: William Morrow, page 338:
   • “How’d you get a job like this?” she asked. “A fella got to eat,” he began; and then, belligerently, “A fella got a right to eat.” 1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 26, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, published 1962, page 512:

Forms