[Fr. n. of action, f. acharne-r to give a taste of flesh (to dogs, falcons, etc.) Included as a technical military term in James’s Mil. Dict., 1816, which professed to give ‘the explanation of military terms in English, with the admixture of French words.’] Eagerness for blood, bloodthirsty fury, ferocity.
1816. James, Mil. Dict. (ed. 4), Acharnement, Fr., the rage and frenzy to which soldiers are subjected in the heat of an engagement.
1830. Caledonian Merc., Sept. 30. The extraordinary acharnement of the Belgians against their Government.
1833. Blackw. Mag., XXXIII. 502. The dreadful acharnement which marked the war on both sides—the acharnement of long-hoarded vengeance and maddening remembrances.
1854. Badham, Prose Halieutics, 46. Leaping at it with all the acharnement of dogs on a boar’s back.
1857. De Quincey, Wks., VII. 299. The Jewish acharnement against the Christians … would be inflamed to a frantic excess.
