Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to the spleen.
- adj. Affected or marked by ill humor or irritability.
- n. A person regarded as irritable.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to the spleen; splenic.
- Affected with spleen; ill-humored; peevish; fretful; spiteful.
- Synonyms Sulky, Morose, etc. (see sullen), irritable, pettish, waspish, snappish, cross, crusty, testy.
- n. The spleen.
- n. A person affected with spleen.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Affected with spleen; malicious; spiteful; peevish; fretful.
- n. A person affected with spleen.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of or relating to the spleen
- adj. very irritable
Etymologies
- Late Latin splēnēticus, from Latin splēn, spleen; see spleen.
Examples
“I am told that "splenetic" language could be heard from the direction of the PM's office as soon as Brown read Darling's interview on Tuesday.”
“But even by the standards of this combustible issue, the attack on the Guardian mounted by Israel's ambassador to London last week was breathtakingly splenetic.”
The Huffington Post: Ian Katz: Israeli Ambassador's Dishonest Attacks on the Guardian Miss the Point
“Unlike Mitchell he didn't send me the rejection letters, but from the tone of his voice it sounded like they were once again eye-poppingly splenetic.”
“In England at least there were fond memories of the Barnacle's stalwart defence in saving the Lord's Test in 1953 to temper the criticism even if EW Swanton was typically splenetic in his damnation.”
The Guardian: Pakistan's Azhar joins Barnacle and Boycott as new kid with the block | Rob Bagchi
“The Ghanaian fans reckoned Lúcio induced the referee's error with an exaggerated fall, so their repertoire of songs and sounds was augmented thereafter by splenetic boos every time the centre-back touched the ball.”
The Guardian: Brazil 1-0 Ghana | International friendly match report
“The balance between splenetic, foul-mouthed comedy and real pathos is exquisitely maintained throughout, making 50/50 as funny and wise about impending death as Knocked Up was about impending birth.”
The Guardian: New film 50/50 shows that death can get a lot of laughs
“If you've read The Rum Diary, you'll notice that certain characters and events have been amalgamated, erased or enlarged, often cleverly and wisely, but that Robinson's gentler tone is slightly at odds with Thompson's marvellously splenetic and bilious prose.”
The Guardian: Johnny Depp is back as a very different Hunter S Thompson
“We are fortunate that Chris Waters's Fred Trueman – a thorough and judicious book that does not equivocate over the great Yorkshire and England fast bowler's complexities and sometimes splenetic temperament – is not so tentative.”
The Guardian: Fred Trueman: the good, the bad and the grouchy | Rob Bagchi
“Matt's splenetic father-in-law, Scott, played memorably by Robert Forster, may have been a misanthrope from way back, but he has recently been shattered by the twin tragedies of his daughter, Elizabeth, lying in a Honolulu hospital on life support, and his wife, Alice, who's so bewildered by senile dementia that she mistakes a visit to Elizabeth's bedside for a chance to see Britain's queen.”
The Wall Street Journal: 'Descendants' Has the Genes of a Classic
“In addition to some reading, music or quiet time, they don't arrive at work splenetic at the guy who cut them off.”
The Huffington Post: Martha Rosenberg: Your Brain on $4.50 per Gallon Gas
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘splenetic’.
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Ayatollah's list
Trinkets of lexical goodness.
floccinaucinihili..., quomodocunquize, curmudgeon, illaqueate, ipsissimosity, heterochthonous, hakenkreuz, forisfamiliate, appropinquate, apodyopsis, baryphony, cachinnate and 146 more...
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Adjectival Arcana
A roster of adjectives that infrequently surface in typical conversation and writing. Many are dredged from scientific or other technical jargon or sieved from examples of disused archaic forms.
unitegmic, acaulescent, reticuloendothelial, ingressive, uniate, acanthopterygian, ossific, epiphysial, perivisceral, acœlomatous, cestoid, acælomate and 7762 more...
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ill-suited words
Words that don't seem to fit their definitions.
jejune, palimpsest, refulgent, splenetic, pulchritude, bulkhead
wordlover42 I love your definition, whichbe! Jun 20, 2009
whichbe Ahahaha, this word makes me giggle madly. It's as if splendid mutated into some sort of diabolical, electromagnetic force. Aug 14, 2008