a. Obs. or arch. [var. of WRATHFUL a., after WROTH sb. or a.]
An app. early example in R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 37 is prob. an error for wrathful or wrethful.
1. Of persons: Full of wrath; angry; = WRATHFUL a. 1.
c. 1500. Communycacyon (W. de W.), C j. Alas why haue I wrothfull ben?
1535. Coverdale, Nahum i. 2. A taker of vengeaunce is ye Lorde, and wrothfull.
1546. Gasser’s Prognost., d ij b. The warrier & wrothful Mars, Lord of this yere.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 34. The knight yet wrothful for his late disgrace,… him … sore smote.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., V. vi. Wrothful at such arraignment foul, Dark lower’d the clansman’s sable scowl.
b. Prone to wrath.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Sam. vii. 8. His men … are stronge and of a wrothfull stomack.
2. Proceeding or arising from wrath; characterized by or expressive of anger.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. lxviii. 24. Let thy wrothfull displeasure take holde of them.
1562. Legh, Armory, 165 b. His irefull hart straight braided out wrothful wordes of wreke and reuenge.
Hence Wrothfully adv., Wrothfulness.
a. 1500. Hist. K. Boccus & Sydracke (? 1510), P ij. He styreth and quakyth *wrothfully.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. cxxiii. 3. When they were so wrothfully displeased at vs.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. vii. 16. But … (quoth he halfe wrothfully) Where is the bootie?
1855. Thorpe, trans. Beowulf, 6116. Then was the quarrel wrothfully avenged.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. x. 22. Pryde was not made for man, nether *wrothfulness for mens children.
