mordacious
adjEtymology From Latin mordax (“given to biting, corrosive”) (from mordere (“to bite, sting”)) + -ious.
1
Biting, causing a physical bite or sting; corrosive
2
Sharp or caustic in style or tone.
3
Sharp in intent, sarcastic.
- And that is really the long and the short of the whole matter, my mordacious friend.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:
4
Prone to biting, aggressive (of an animal etc.).
- Not gyved with connubial relations, I entered upon my migration entirely isolated, with the exception of a canine quadruped whose mordacious, latrant, lusorious, and venatic qualities, are without parity.1856, Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour, Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, page 13:
- Derived terms
- mordaciously, mordacity