quarrelsomeadj.

1576 J. Daniel tr. J. Pérez Excelent Comfort viii. f. 33^v Notwithstanding the false coulers which they vse in their quarelsome war y^t they make with vs, they couer themselues w^t a cloak, & say y^t we are heritikes, & that they are holy.

1582 Bible (Rheims) 1 Tim. iii. 3 Not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous, but One that ruleth well in his own house.

1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Dissentioso,..contentious, squaring, quarrelsome.

1603 P. Holland tr. Plutarch Morals 726 A dog is..fell and quarrelsome, given to arre.

1616 W. Sclater Serm. 10 Weigh well how..quarrelsome at the liues of magistrates the people are.

1681 A. Wyndham Claustrum Regale Reseratum (ed. 3) 78 This quarrelsom Gossipping was a most seasonable diversion.

1718 A. Pope Corr. 18 Jan. (1956) I. 462 The unrighteous labours of wrangling statesmen, and the quarrelsome ones of uncharitable divines.

1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. v. ix. 193 Men who are ill-natured and quarrelsome when they are drunk. View more context for this quotation

1795 W. Cowper Pairing Time 57 Soon every father-bird and mother Grew quarrelsome, and pecked each other.

1817 W. Scott Rob Roy I. xii. 280 The wine rendered me loquacious, disputacious and quarrelsome.

1879 L. G. Seguin Black Forest viii. 115 The lords of Windeck..were of a specially quarrelsome temper.

1924 Lady Astor in Observer 11 May 11/4 People who talk about peace are very often the most quarrelsome.

1967 A. Djoleto Strange Man v. 70 He tells the quarrelsome women to shut up when they shriek in his lorry.

1989 N. Sherry Life Graham Greene I. xxxv. 554 The stormy atmosphere made..the men quarrelsome. She could hear them snapping at each other.

1825 S. T. Coleridge Aids Refl. 36 Technical terms, hard to be remembered, and alike quarrelsome to the ear and the tongue.

1648 J. Goodwin Νεοϕυτοπρεσβυτερος 113 He teacheth not at all, unlesse it be to know what it is to swel in a Parish so proudly, covetously, and quarrelsomly Clergified.

1764 Bloody Reg. II. 177 Rather take those things others called affronts than quarrelsomely resent them.

1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick lxiv. 327 The sharks, also, with their jewel-hilted mouths, are quarrelsomely carving away under the table at the dead meat.

1987 S. Weintraub Victoria (1988) iii. 54 Queen Caroline, from whom George IV had been quarrelsomely separated for twenty-five years, unexpectedly died.