belligerently

English

Etymology

belligerent +‎ -ly

Adverb

belligerently (comparative more belligerently, superlative most belligerently)

1. In a belligerent manner; with aggressive hostility.
   • 1896, Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, New York: Appleton, Chapter 11, pp. 88-89,^[1]

     They swaggered unsteadily but belligerently toward the bar and looked at Pete with bleared and blinking eyes.

   • 1939, John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, 1962, Chapter 26, p. 512,^[2]

     “How’d you get a job like this?” she asked.

     “A fella got to eat,” he began; and then, belligerently, “A fella got a right to eat.”

   • 1989, John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: William Morrow, Chapter 7, p. 338,^[3]

     In truth, Mrs. Lish’s charge of anti-Semitism had backfired with a number of the faculty, who were quite belligerently anti-Semitic themselves.