Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Acting or done quickly with little or inadequate thought.
  • adjective Having or marked by violent force.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having or characterized by great impetus; rushing with force and violence; acting with sudden, vehement, or rash energy; performed or delivered with sudden, overbearing force: as, an impetuous torrent; an impetuous charge or harangue.
  • Synonyms Precipitate, hot, furious, vehement, passionate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Rushing with force and violence; moving with impetus; furious; forcible; violent
  • adjective Vehement in feeling; hasty; passionate; violent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Making arbitrary decisions, especially in an impulsive and forceful manner.
  • adjective Characterized by sudden and violent force.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characterized by undue haste and lack of thought or deliberation
  • adjective marked by violent force

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, violent, from Old French impetueux, from Late Latin impetuōsus, from Latin impetus, impetus; see impetus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French impetueux, from Late Latin impetuōsus ("violent"), from Latin impetus ("violence").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Saying what you think without thinking.

    February 14, 2008

  • One of the bad guys that they dealt with called Artie this.

    September 23, 2012