angry

English

Etymology

From Middle English angry; see anger.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæŋ.ɡɹi/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋɡɹi

Adjective

angry (comparative angrier or more angry, superlative angriest or most angry)

1. Displaying or feeling anger.

   His face became angry.

   An angry mob started looting the warehouse.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.

   • 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 41:58 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!‎, archived from the original on 20 July 2022:

     But, statistically-speaking, there is significantly-greater-than-even odds of the American forces coming out victorious - as I said, largely due to, one, the sheer technology advantage of the radar and fire-control systems, and also two, the almighty swarm of Fletchers. Never, ever underestimate the firepower of an almighty swarm of angry Fletchers.

2. (said about a wound or a rash) Inflamed and painful.

   The broken glass left two angry cuts across my arm.

3. (figuratively, said about the elements, like the sky or the sea) Dark and stormy, menacing.

   Angry clouds raced across the sky.

   • 1756, Christopher Smart, “Ode II”, in The Book of the Epodes, translation of original by Horace:

     […] nor dreads he the angry sea […]

   • 1997, Kelly Joyce Neff, Dear Companion: The Inner Life of Martha Jefferson, page 92:

     When she and her sister were away at Williamsburg, Nancy and I were more like founderers on a raft adrift in an angry sea.

Usage notes

• The comparative more angry and the superlative most angry are also occasionally found.

• The sense “feeling anger” is construed with with or at when the object is a person: I’m angry with/at my boss. It is construed with at or about when the object is a situation: I’m angry at/about what he said. When both a person and a situation are given, the latter is construed with for instead: I’m angry with/at my boss for what he said. But, as with many other words for emotions, sentences with an unmarked subordinate clause are also possible: Are you angry I'm here with you?

Synonyms

• (displaying anger): upset, mad, enraged, wrathful, furious, apoplectic; irritated, annoyed, vexed, pissed off, cheesed off, worked up, psyched up
• See also Thesaurus:angry

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

angry (third-person singular simple present angries, present participle angrying, simple past and past participle angried)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To anger.
   • 1578, The Cathechisme or Manner How to Instruct and Teach Children and Others in the Christian Faith. , London: Henrie Middleton, for Iohn Harison:

     Onely they that repent, and are verie ſorie that they haue angried God with their ſinnes, and yet truſt that they are forgiuẽ them for Chriſtes ſake, and that the reſt of their weakeneſſe and vnperfectnes is couered with his deth & paſſion, who alſo deſire to goe forwarde and growe more and more in holy life & conuerſation.

   • 1580, Iohn Stow (collector), The Chronicles of England, from Brute vnto This Present Yeare of Christ 1580., London: Ralphe Newberie, , page 512:

     The King ſent to the Londoners requeſting to borrowe of them one thouſande pounde, whiche they ſtoutely denyed, and alſo euil entreated, bette and néere hand ſlew a certain Lumbard that woulde haue lent the King the ſayde ſumme, which when the King heard he was maruellouſly angried, and calling togither almoſt all the nobles of the lande, hée opened to them the malitiouſneſſe of the Londoners, and cõplayned of theyr preſumption, the whyche noble men gaue counſell, that their inſolencie ſhoulde with ſpéede be oppreſſed, and theyr pride abated.

   • 1609, William Biddulph, The Trauels of Certaine Englishmen into Africa, Asia, Troy, Bythinia, Thracia, and to the Blacke Sea. , London: Th. Haueland, for W. Aspley, , pages 49–50:

     For when the Arabians being offended with Heraclius for denying them their pay, and for his religion had ſeuered themſelues from him, Mahomet ioyned himſelfe to the angried ſouldiers, and ſtirred vp their minds againſt their Emperour, and encouraged them in their defection.

   • 1611, Iohn Iackson, The Soule Is Immortall: or, Certaine Discourses Defending the Immortalitie of the Soule; Against the Limmes of Sathan: to Wit, Saduces, Anabaptistes, Atheists, and Such Like of the Hellish Crue of Aduersaries, London: W. W. for Robert Boulton , page 173:

     For verily the common ſort (O Socratus my friende,) is ingratefull, full of mockes and ſcornes, vaine, ſoone angried, cruel, enuious, rude, heaped full of troubles and trifles: and whoſeuer doth familiarly acquaint himſelfe with them, & conuerſe amongſt them, doth at the length, become farre more miſerable then they be themſelues.

   • 1625, R V, Ionah’s Contestation about His Gourd. In a Sermon Deliuered at Pauls Crosse. Septemb. 19. 1624., London: I. L. for Robert Bird, , page 27:

     I doe well to be angry. It was a milde ſaying of Auguſtus the Emperour to one of his ſouldiers deſirous to be diſmiſſed his armie, but wanting a iuſt and honeſt excuſe to his friends at his returne home, ſay, ſaith the Emperour, that I have angried thee.

   • 1631, [Richard Smith], A Conference of the Catholike and Protestante Doctrine with the Expresse Words of Holie Scripture. Which Is the Second Parte of the Prudentiall Balance of Religion. VVherein Is Clearely Shewed, That in More than 260. Points of Controuersie, Catholicks Agree with the Holie Scripture, both in Words and Sense: and Protestants Disagree in Both, and Depraue Both the Sayings, Words, and Sense of Scripture. , Doway, , page 72:

     It is the doctrin of the Scripture. that our good works are alwaies ſtained with much vncleanes, with which God may be iuſtly offended and angried: ſo farre are they from purchazing vs his good will, or prouoking his liberalitie towards vs.

   • 1642, Thomas Fuller, “The Harlot”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Roger Daniel for John Williams, , →OCLC, book V (The Profane State), paragraph 3, page 358:

     And what Potiphars wife ſaid with her tongue, ſhe ſaith unto the paſſengers with her geſture and gate, Come lie with me; and nothing angrieth her ſo much, as when modeſt men affect a deafneſſe and will not heare, or a dulneſſe and will not underſtand the language of her behaviour.

   • 1650 , [William Brough], Sacred Principles, Services, and Soliloquies: or, A Manual of Devotions Made up of Three Parts: , London: J. G. for John Clark, , page 64:

     Even thy Creatures, how terrible are they, O Lord! all hearts are afraid of thy tempeſts, and melt at thy ſtormes: O let me in this glaſſe of their terror ſee the dreadfull face of thy angried Majeſtie! at which the depths themſelves doe tremble, and the foundations of the world are diſcovered, even as the blaſt of the breath of thy noſtrils, O Lord! And let me never preſume to exalt my ſelfe againſt thee, but ever tremble before thy face.

   • 1655, [Madeleine de Scudéry] (indicated as “Monsieur de Scudery”), translated by F. G., The Fifth and Last Volume of Artamenes, or The Grand Cyrus, That Excellent New Romance: Being the Ninth and Tenth Parts, Which Finish the Whole Work, London: Humphrey Moseley and Thomas Dring , page 28:

     Yet I am both (replyed ſhe) for my joyes at what he hath done, proceeds principally from his angrying me.

   • 1658, Honorè D’Urfe, translated by [John Davies], The Third and Last Volume of Astrea a Romance, London: Hum: Moseley, Tho. Dring, and H. Herringman, , page 284:

     Palanice cannot ſpeak unto Cercinea in behalf of Clorian, without angrying me in the perſon of Alcander, and unleſſe ſhe oblige me to raviſh Amilcar from her; […]

   • 1673, England’s Alarm, and a Warning to London, Being a Wonderful Sermon, Preached in the Year 1673, by an Eminent Minister of Christ College, Cambridge, on the Dreadful Conflagration in the Year 1666. , published 1795, page 24:

     King Ahab was a good ſervant of the devil, but Ahab had angried God, and God was reſolved he would ſpare him no longer, but cut him off.

   • 1685, Edward Pococke, A Commentary on the Prophecy of Hosea, Oxford, , page 708:

     What doth the repeating thoſe verbs import, but angrying bitterly or grievouſly?

   • 1689, A Supplement, 1689. to a Former Treatise, Concerning the East-India Trade, Printed 1681., page 8:

     But the truth was, thoſe former Committees durſt not attempt ſuch a change of their Affairs, for fear of the charge of ſuch a remove; but eſpecially for fear of angrying the Mogul, whoſe people gained exceedingly by our ſhips riding in their Ports, as well as by our Trade, and were out of fear of Bombay, while it was in ſuch a forlorn neglected condition; […]

   • 1689, Philip Ayres, Mythologia Ethica: or, Three Centuries of Æsopian Fables. In English Prose. Done from Æsop, Phædrus, Camerarius, and All Other Eminent Authors on This Subject. , London: Thomas Howkins, , page 161:

     IT angrying a Country-man to ſee his two Hogs often fighting together, he killed one of them; […]

   • 1690, Casuistical Morning-Exercises. The Fourth Volume. By Several Ministers in and about London, Preached in October, 1689., London: James Astwood for John Dunton, :

     And this End of God is now made void when ſinners repent not: Men are ſometimes grieved, and ſometimes angried when they are diſappointed in their End; o is God ſaid to be: He complains often of this in the Scriptures, when he is diſappointed in the End of his Corrections; […]

   • 1814, [Isaac D’Israeli], Quarrels of Authors; or, Some Memoirs of Our Literary History, Including Specimens of Controversy to the Reign of Elizabeth, volume III, London: John Murray, , page 30:

     Our temperate Sage, though angried at that spirit of contradiction which he had raised, must, however, have sometimes smiled both on his advocates and his adversaries!

See also

• Anger on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• rangy

Middle English

Alternative forms

• angri, angrye

Etymology

From anger +‎ -y, from Old Norse angr (“affliction, sorrow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈanɡriː/

Adjective

angry (superlative angriest)

1. Angry; displaying angriness (usually of actions)
2. Easily annoyed or angered; irous or spiteful.
3. Severe, vexatious, ferocious, painful.

Derived terms

• angrily
• angrynes

Descendants

• English: angry
• Scots: angry

References

• “angrī, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-04-02.