bilious
English
Etymology
From French bilieux, from Latin bīliōsus (“full of bile”), from bīlis (“bile”) + -ōsus (“full of”).
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈbɪl.i.əs/
Audio (UK): (file)
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈbɪl.jəs/, /ˈbɪl.i.əs/
- Rhymes: -ɪliəs, -ɪljəs
Adjective
bilious (comparative more bilious, superlative most bilious)
- Of or pertaining to something containing or consisting of bile.
- Resembling bile, especially in color.
- 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
- Does money fail?—come to my mint—coin paper,
Till gold be at a discount, and ashamed
To show his bilious face, go purge himself,
In emulation of her vestal whiteness.
- 1845, Alexandre Dumas, chapter 31, in Twenty Years After:
- His complexion was pale, not of that deadly pallor which is a kind of neutral beauty, but of a bilious, yellow hue; his colorless hair was short and scarcely extended beyond the circle formed by the hat around his head, and his light blue eyes seemed destitute of any expression.
- 1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 3, in Main Street:
- The business-center of Schoenstrom took up one side of one block, facing the railroad. It was a row of one-story shops covered with galvanized iron, or with clapboards painted red and bilious yellow.
- 1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, prologue:
- A beautiful girl once told me of a recurring nightmare in which she lay in the center of a large dark room and felt her face expand until it filled the whole room, becoming a formless mass while her eyes ran in bilious jelly up the chimney.
- (pathology) Suffering from real or supposed liver disorder, especially excessive secretions of bile.
- 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume II, chapter 7:
- Perry tells me that Mr. Cole never touches malt liquor. You would not think it to look at him, but he is bilious—Mr. Cole is very bilious.
- Peevishly ill-humored, irritable or bad tempered; irascible.
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 828: Parameter "p" is not used by this template.
- 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days:
- The boarders, sharp-tongued bilious widows, pursued the only man in the establishment, a mild, bald creature who worked in La Samaritaine […]
Related terms
- atrabilious (full of black bile)
- bile
Translations
suffering from real or supposed liver disorder
|
of or pertaining to bile
irritable, irascible
|
Categories:
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English 2-syllable words
- Rhymes:English/ɪliəs
- Rhymes:English/ɪliəs/3 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ɪljəs
- Rhymes:English/ɪljəs/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- en:Pathology
- en:Yellows