Bilious
adj ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Of or pertaining to something containing or consisting of bile.
- 2 Resembling bile, especially in color.
"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."
- 3 Suffering from real or supposed liver disorder, especially excessive secretions of bile.
"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."
- 4 Peevishly ill-humored, irritable or bad tempered; irascible.
"The glorified spirit of a great statesman and philosopher dawdling, like a bilious old Nabob at a watering-place, over quarterly reviews and novels—dropping in to pay long calls—making excursions in search of the picturesque!"
- 1 irritable as if suffering from indigestion wordnet
- 2 suffering from or suggesting a liver disorder or gastric distress wordnet
- 3 relating to or containing bile wordnet
Example
More examples"The critic's bilious review seemed less about the play and more about his personal grudges."
Etymology
From French bilieux, from Latin bīliōsus (“full of bile”), from bīlis (“bile”) + -ōsus (“full of”).
Related phrases
More for "bilious"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.