Splenetic

I am told that "splenetic" language could be heard from the direction of the PM's office as soon as Brown read Darling's interview on Tuesday. ❋ Unknown (2010)

But even by the standards of this combustible issue, the attack on the Guardian mounted by Israel's ambassador to London last week was breathtakingly splenetic. ❋ Ian Katz (2011)

If you've read The Rum Diary, you'll notice that certain characters and events have been amalgamated, erased or enlarged, often cleverly and wisely, but that Robinson's gentler tone is slightly at odds with Thompson's marvellously splenetic and bilious prose. ❋ Unknown (2011)

Matt's splenetic father-in-law, Scott, played memorably by Robert Forster, may have been a misanthrope from way back, but he has recently been shattered by the twin tragedies of his daughter, Elizabeth, lying in a Honolulu hospital on life support, and his wife, Alice, who's so bewildered by senile dementia that she mistakes a visit to Elizabeth's bedside for a chance to see Britain's queen. ❋ Joe Morgenstern (2011)

In contrast to the referendum campaign, the Lib Dem cabinet ministers Chris Huhne and Vince Cable, both vocal and at times splenetic critics of David Cameron during the campaign, will tone things down a bit. ❋ Unknown (2011)

Unlike Mitchell he didn't send me the rejection letters, but from the tone of his voice it sounded like they were once again eye-poppingly splenetic. ❋ Rex Pickett (2012)

We are fortunate that Chris Waters's Fred Trueman – a thorough and judicious book that does not equivocate over the great Yorkshire and England fast bowler's complexities and sometimes splenetic temperament – is not so tentative. ❋ Unknown (2011)

In England at least there were fond memories of the Barnacle's stalwart defence in saving the Lord's Test in 1953 to temper the criticism even if EW Swanton was typically splenetic in his damnation. ❋ Unknown (2012)

In fact, there is nothing in Myer's review that suggests to me that he knows anything at all about what makes for an effective prose style, nor that he read Tree of Smoke in order to fairly appraise it for what it is trying to accomplish rather than find in it what he wanted to find -- an excuse to engage in more splenetic denunciation of contemporary fiction. ❋ Unknown (2010)

In addition to some reading, music or quiet time, they don't arrive at work splenetic at the guy who cut them off. ❋ Martha Rosenberg (2011)

The balance between splenetic, foul-mouthed comedy and real pathos is exquisitely maintained throughout, making 50/50 as funny and wise about impending death as Knocked Up was about impending birth. ❋ Unknown (2011)

The Ghanaian fans reckoned Lúcio induced the referee's error with an exaggerated fall, so their repertoire of songs and sounds was augmented thereafter by splenetic boos every time the centre-back touched the ball. ❋ Unknown (2011)

As recently as a few years ago, splenetic liberals on the Times op-ed page were still accusing him of racism -- even though the examples he gave, as we noted in 2007, were no more objectionable than the ones in today's Times story. ❋ James Taranto (2010)

But the fact that Frank Rich, a splenetic left-liberal former theater critic, is "Exhibit A" here rather undermines the claim of neutrality, does it not? ❋ James Taranto (2010)