There was fierce debate about the role that government could play.
Pryor, a second-generation senator, is holding off a fierce challenge from conservative idol Tom Cotton.
Castro would slide from view for weeks or months until the percolation of rumors roared to a fierce bubbling.
He was a born storyteller, a fierce friend, and an even fiercer enemy.
My inner critic is a fierce enough creature; ultimately one does the best one can, whatever the critics say.
The fierce red glare that lit the southern sky was ever mounting higher.
They stung the feather'd horse: with fierce alarm He flapp'd towards the sound.
The overseer cast a fierce but embarrassed look at the Creole.
Deborah, silent and fierce, grabbed at the handkerchief, and tore it from Maud's grasp.
It did not turn out to be so prolonged or so fierce a conflict as he had apprehended.
mid-13c., "proud, noble, bold," from Old French fers, nominative form of fer, fier "strong, overwhelming, violent, fierce, wild; proud, mighty, great, impressive" (Modern French fier "proud, haughty"), from Latin ferus "wild, untamed," from PIE root *ghwer- "wild, wild animal" (cf. Greek ther, Old Church Slavonic zveri, Lithuanian zveris "wild beast").
Original English sense of "brave, proud" died out 16c., but caused the word at first to be commonly used as an epithet, which accounts for the rare instance of a French word entering English in the nominative case. Meaning "ferocious, wild, savage" is from c.1300. Related: Fiercely; fierceness.
