a. [f. WRATH sb. + -FUL. Cf. WRETHFUL a., WROTHFUL a.]

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  1.  Of persons, etc.: Harboring wrath; full of anger; enraged, incensed.

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a. 1300.  E. E. Psalter xvii. 51. Mi leser artou … Fra mi faes ben wrathful ai.

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c. 1330.  Spec. Gy de Warw., 262. Þeder he wole lihten adoun Wraþfful … as a lioun.

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1388.  Wyclif, Prov. xv. 18. A wrathful man reisith chidyngis.

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1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xii. (Bodl. MS.). Some [bees] beþ … foule to siȝt and more wraþfulle þanne oþer.

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c. 1430.  in Babees Bk., 12. [Do not be] to wielde, ne to wraþful, neiþer waaste.

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1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 758. He was malicious, wrathfull, enuyous.

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1582.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 18. Al the frushe and leauings of Greeks, of wrathful Achilles.

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1624.  Milton, Ps. cxxxvi. 10. O let us his praises tell, That doth the wrathfull tyrants quell.

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1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 344. The Bees, a wrathful Race. Ibid. (1697), Æneis, VIII. 81. With sacrifice the wrathful queen appease.

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a. 1718.  Prior, 2nd Hymn of Callimachus, 22. Lest wrathful the far-shooting God emitt His fatal Arrows.

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1775.  Adair, Amer. Ind., 303. They hung down their heads, and looked gloomy and wrathful.

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1846.  W. H. Mill, Five Serm. (1848), 116. Describing Himself as wrathful against the determined sinner.

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1877.  ‘Rita,’ Vivienne, I. viii. Her heart was wrathful and indignant.

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1892.  A. E. Lee, Hist. Columbus, Ohio, I. 315. The tollgates … were torn away by wrathful citizens.

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  b.  transf. Of things.

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1563.  Sackville, Induct. Mirr. Mag., i. The wrathful winter prochinge on a-pace.

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1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. ii. 30. Thousand furies wait on wrathfull sword.

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1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. ii. 902. Thou hast felt the rod Of the revenging wrathfull hand of God.

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1605.  Shaks., Lear, III. ii. 43. The wrathfull Skies Gallow the very wanderers of the darke.

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1697.  Dryden, Æneis, IX. 461. Nor with less Rage Euryalus employs The wrathful Sword, or fewer Foes destroys.

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1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 38, ¶ 3. They stripp’d and … fought full fairly with their wrathful Hands.

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1727.  Thomson, Summer, 741. Unusual Darkness … gains The whole Possession of the Air, surcharg’d With wrathful Vapour.

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a. 1835.  Mrs. Hemans, Treasures of Deep, ii. Sweep o’er thy spoils, thou wild and wrathful main.

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1841.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, lvi. A threatening light … which … showed like a wrathful sunset.

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  2.  Marked or characterized by, expressive of, of the nature of, wrath or anger.

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1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 98. Full of ymaginacion Of dredes and of wrathful thoghtes, He fret himselven al to noghtes.

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c. 1400.  26 Pol. Poems, xx. 77. Þan comeþ she hom in wraþþeful hete.

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14[?].  Of Manners, 8, in Babees-bk., 34. Of wraþful wordis euermore be ware.

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1514.  Barclay, Egloges (1570), B iv/1. Better is … a small handfull with rest and sure pleasaunce, Then twenty dishes with wrathfull countenaunce.

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1535.  Coverdale, 1 Macc. ii. 49. Now is the tyme of destruccion and wrathfull displeasure.

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1610.  Mirr. for Mag., 630. Ioue in the tempest of his wrathfull mood Powr’d downe his wreake vpon my wretched hed.

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1631.  Gouge, God’s Arrows, III. § 3. 186. Wrathfull and revengefull affections.

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1716.  Pope, Iliad, V. 1092. Him … with a wrathful Look The Lord of Thunders view’d.

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1834.  Pringle, Afr. Sk., vii. 252. I heard … the tremendous screams of their [elephants’] wrathful voices resounding among the precipitous banks.

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1900.  Longm. Mag., March, 452. His accelerated and somewhat wrathful departure from Brackenhurst.

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  Comb.  1885.  C. J. Lyall, Anc. Arab. Poet., 5. A lion wrathful-eyed.

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