Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Anger; irritability.
  • noun One of the four humors of ancient and medieval physiology, thought to cause anger and bad temper when present in excess; yellow bile.
  • noun Obsolete The quality and condition of being bilious.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The bile.
  • noun Hence Anger; wrath; irascibility.
  • noun Synonyms Anger, Vexation, Indignation, etc. See anger.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The bile; -- formerly supposed to be the seat and cause of irascibility.
  • noun Irritation of the passions; anger; wrath.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Anger or irritability.
  • noun One of the four humours of ancient physiology, also known as yellow bile.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an irritable petulant feeling
  • noun a strong emotion; a feeling that is oriented toward some real or supposed grievance
  • noun a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the liver and to cause irritability and anger

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English colre, from Old French, from Latin cholera, cholera, jaundice, from Greek kholera, from kholē, bile; see ghel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From English colre, from Old French colre, from Latin cholera, "jaundice", from Ancient Greek kholera, from khol, "bile"

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Examples

  • There likewise were plums and cherries and grapes, that the sick of all diseases assain and do away giddiness and yellow choler from the brain; and figs the branches between, varicoloured red and green, amazing sight and sense, even as saith the poet,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Too much choler is a bad thing, it will eat out your insides.

    Choler « So Many Books 2005

  • Senes plerunque delirasse in senecta, that old men familiarly dote, ob atram bilem, for black choler, which is then superabundant in them: and Rhasis, that Arabian physician, in his Cont. lib.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • My speech to the King and my choler were the topic of the day, and I was blamed for having spoken so loudly and in such terms.

    Court Memoirs of France Series — Complete Various

  • These extravagancies set all the company in a laughter; at which the Bonza was so enraged, that he flew out into greater passion, till the king commanded his brother to impose silence on him; after which, he caused his seat to be taken from under him, and commanded him to withdraw, telling him, by way of raillery, “That his choler was a convincing proof of a Bonza's holiness;” and then seriously adding,

    The Works of John Dryden Dryden, John, 1631-1700 1808

  • My speech to the King and my choler were the topic of the day, and I was blamed for having spoken so loudly and in such terms.

    Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Volume 02 Louis de Rouvroy Saint-Simon 1715

  • My speech to the King and my choler were the topic of the day, and I was blamed for having spoken so loudly and in such terms.

    Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency — Complete Louis de Rouvroy Saint-Simon 1715

  • As all intellectual phenomena by Gregory Bodenhamer Nollijy University have by experimentalists been reduced to Anger (also called choler) is an emotional sensation, so all emotion has been and is state that may range from minor irritation to regarded as reducible to simple mental intense rage.

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2008

  • These extravagancies set all the company in a laughter; at which the Bonza was so enraged, that he flew out into greater passion, till the king commanded his brother to impose silence on him; after which, he caused his seat to be taken from under him, and commanded him to withdraw, telling him, by way of raillery, "That his choler was a convincing proof of a Bonza's holiness;" and then seriously adding, "That a man of his character had more commerce with hell than heaven."

    The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 16 John Dryden 1665

  • His son Alexander had followed his example, but it was current among the English that he had died of "choler," on being detected in a plot against them, and his successor, Philip, was a man of more than common pride, fierceness, cunning, and ability.

    Pioneers and Founders or, Recent Workers in the Mission field Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

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