Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Full of spleen; irritable or spiteful.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Full of or displaying spleen; angry; peevish; fretful; melancholy; hypochondriacal; splenetic.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Displaying, or affected with, spleen; angry; fretful; melancholy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Full of
spleen ;spiteful .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We regretted, for Thackeray's own sake, that he had permitted himself, in some spleenful moment, to commit an injustice, which would sooner or later be apparent to his own mind.
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 77, March, 1864 Various
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Ah, those maladette bestie di serpenti -- they swarmed among the rocks: they were of every kind and size; worst of all, the spleenful naja.
Fountains in the Sand Rambles Among the Oases of Tunisia Norman Douglas 1910
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In spleenful moments, it seems to me that the most depraved of city-dwellers has flashes of enthusiasm and self-abnegation never experienced by this shifty, retrogressive and ungenerous brood, which lives like the beasts of the field and has learnt all too much of their logic.
Old Calabria Norman Douglas 1910
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Breaking a slumber in which all spleenful folly was drown'd. . .
Maud. Part I 1909
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His fluency was as remarkable as ever, and at first as spleenful; by-and-by his outrageous mood gave way, and, in response to some of Rainham's adroit thrusts, he condescended to stand on his defence.
A Comedy of Masks A Novel Arthur Moore 1909
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Extreme sensitiveness is apt to accompany a spirit of just his high-strung, petulant, and spleenful sort.
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The Umbrian mountaineers are spleenful, tenacious of a grudge and ferociously acrimonious.
Andivius Hedulio Adventures of a Roman Nobleman in the Days of the Empire Edward Lucas White 1900
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Mr. ARTHUR WHITBY'S parson, Mr. NORMAN FORBES 'squire, Miss JEAN CADELL'S housekeeper, left no chinks in their armour for a critic's spleenful arrow.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-04-25 Various 1898
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He knows that not only was his jealousy of his wife groundless, but it was forced by a spleenful pride.
Vittoria — Volume 4 George Meredith 1868
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He knows that not only was his jealousy of his wife groundless, but it was forced by a spleenful pride.
Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith George Meredith 1868
phoenixbird777 commented on the word spleenful
Wow... This is right up there with phlegm. Not my favorite word.
August 10, 2010