Strong and savage. In S.E. Missouri, vigrous = fierce: ‘Dial. Notes,’ ii. 335.
1832. A lady who professed a great admiration for Mrs. Drake had obtained her permission to be present upon one occasion at her theatrical toilet. She was dressing for some character in which she was to stab herself, and her dagger was lying on the table. The visitor took it up, and examining it with much emotion, exclaimed, “What! do you really jab this in yourself sevagarous?”—Mrs. Trollope, ‘Domestic Manners of the Americans,’ i. 182.
1835. “Pretty sevigrous, but nothing killing yet,” said Billy Curlew, as he learned the place of Spivey’s ball.—A. B. Longstreet, ‘Georgia Scenes,’ p. 227. (Italics in the original.)
1837. The strongest man in Kentucky, and the most sevagarous at a tussle.—R. M. Bird, ‘Nick of the Woods,’ i. 96 (Lond.).
1843. The Editor [of the Age] calls his savagerous enemy a remarkably pious and moral young man.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, Aug. 25.
1848. He felt considerable streeked at bein’ roused out o’ his mornin’s nap for nothin’; so, altogether he felt sorter wolfish, and lookin’ at the strannger darned savagerous, says, “Who the hell are you?”—W. E. Burton, ‘Waggeries,’ p. 16 (Phila.).
1849. The turtle popped out its head, and rolled its eyes, while a sort of wheeze issued from its savagerous mouth.—Frontier Guardian, Aug. 8: from the Odd Fellow.
1852. This ’ere hair was to rouse ’em to do somethin’ savagerous.—H. C. Watson, ‘Nights in a Block-house,’ p. 37 (Phila.).
1854. The hog was quartered, grabbed, and carried off on another block, and then a set of savagerous lookin’ chaps layed it and cut and skirted round.—N.Y. Spirit of the Times, n.d.
a. 1855. He [the lion] once fiercely contended for the crown with a very sawagerous creature called the Youknowcan.—Dow, Jun., ‘Patent Sermons,’ iv. 263.
1866. It [habeas corpus] is, perhaps, when suspended, the most savagerous beast that ever got after tories and traitors.—C. H. Smith, ‘Bill Arp,’ p. 54.
