pugnacious

pugnacious
    adj 1: tough and callous by virtue of experience [syn: {hard-
           bitten}, {hard-boiled}, {pugnacious}]
    2: ready and able to resort to force or violence; "pugnacious
       spirits...lamented that there was so little prospect of an
       exhilarating disturbance"- Herman Melville; "they were rough
       and determined fighting men" [syn: {pugnacious}, {rough}]
    

Pugnacious \Pug*na"cious\, a. [L. pugnax, -acis, fr. pugnare to
   fight. Cf. {Pugilism}, {Fist}.]
   Disposed to fight; inclined to fighting; quarrelsome;
   fighting. --{Pug*na"cious*ly}, adv. -- {Pug*na"cious*ness},
   n.
   [1913 Webster]
    

66 Moby Thesaurus words for "pugnacious":
      aggressive, antagonistic, battling, bellicose, belligerent,
      bickering, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, brawling,
      chauvinist, chauvinistic, combative, contentious, disputatious,
      divisive, enemy, eristic, factional, factious, ferocious, fierce,
      fight, fighting, full of fight, hawkish, hostile, inimical,
      irascible, irritable, jingo, jingoish, jingoist, jingoistic,
      litigious, martial, militant, militaristic, military, offensive,
      partisan, polarizing, polemic, pushing, pushy, quarrelsome,
      rebellious, saber-rattling, sanguinary, sanguineous, savage,
      scrappy, self-assertive, shrewish, soldierlike, soldierly,
      trigger-happy, truculent, unfriendly, unpacific, unpeaceable,
      unpeaceful, warlike, warmongering, warring, wrangling