Dictionary

donnybrookian en · ADJ

Etymology

From donnybrook + -ian.

Meanings

1. (Australia, Canada, New-Zealand, US) Of or pertaining to a donnybrook; bellicose; disconcerted; raucous; clashing.
   • Hereupon Ted drew forth his cudgel, hit the Turk a donnybrookian whack over the skull that laid him flat on the ground, and took to his heels. 2012, R.M. Ballantyne, The Pirate City: A Tale of the Pirates of the City of Algiers, and Their Defeat by the British Navy, The Floating Press, page 256
   • All at once we find the irrepressible Count of Poitou in the thick of the fray, for no reason whatever that I can discover, except, may be, a general donnybrookian tendency to take part in any fight that is going! 1878, George Murray Smith, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Cornhill Magazine - Volume 37, Periodical Publication, page 87
   • The favourite device of one of the Indian desert foxes here is of a donnybrookian flavour. 2016, Arthur Morrison, The Complete Works of Arthur Morrison, Delphi Classics - Series 6, (unpaginated)

Forms