pugilistic

There were other critics — Borrow always had plenty of critics — who found it difficult to make his admiration for the prize-ring fit in with his denunciation in one passage of “those disgraceful and brutalising exhibitions called pugilistic combats.”

George Borrow in East Anglia 1904

Probably they liked to know that this missionary called pugilistic combats "disgraceful and brutalising exhibitions"; and they were almost as certainly, as we are to-day, delighted with the descriptions that followed, because it brought for the first time clearly before them a real prize-fighting scene, and the author, a terrible child of fourteen, looking on -- "why should I hide the truth?" says he.

George Borrow The Man and His Books Edward Thomas 1897

In his "introduction" he satisfied some curiosity, but raised still more, when speaking of the English Gypsies and especially of their eminence "in those disgraceful and brutalising exhibitions called pugilistic combats."

George Borrow The Man and His Books Edward Thomas 1897

They are likewise fond of resorting to the prize-ring, and have occasionally even attained some eminence, as principals, in those disgraceful and brutalizing exhibitions called pugilistic combats.

The Pocket George Borrow George Henry Borrow 1842

Senior party members recently approached Sydney drama coach and media specialist Marcus West to help Mr Abbott address his "pugilistic" image in the lead-up to the federal election - and to help make him more appealing.

AustralianIT.com.au | Top Stories 2010

There's a kind of pugilistic high to attain if you can make it through both sides without pausing, allowing the shifting roars and mutant fizz to bathe you like evil-eyed shoegaze.

Cokemachineglow.com 2009

His involvement in a book about the Obama administration isn't a light I'd hide under a bushel -- my expectation would be that such a book would be entertainingly pugilistic and grudgey.

Mark Salter Caught Up In 'O' Speculation Jason Linkins 2011

His involvement in a book about the Obama administration isn't a light I'd hide under a bushel -- my expectation would be that such a book would be entertainingly pugilistic and grudgey.

Mark Salter Caught Up In 'O' Speculation Jason Linkins 2011

But if Democratic figures inside and outside the White House are to be believed, Mr Emanuel's pugilistic approach may turn him into a scapegoat for much what has gone wrong, some of it fair, some not.

Dem Insiders Trash Rahm Emanuel, His Effect On White House 'Tone' The Huffington Post News Team 2010

Those five chapters were the start of her children's debut Fly By Night, a rumbustiously imagined rollick through the adventures of the black-eyed orphan Mosca Mye and her pugilistic goose Saracen.

Frances Hardinge: a bucketful of whimsy 2011