choler
Americannoun
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anger or ill humour
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archaic one of the four bodily humours; yellow bile See humour
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obsolete biliousness
Usage
What does choler mean? Choler means anger, irritability, or a generally bad temperament. Choler is more commonly used in its adjective form, choleric, meaning easily angered or generally bad-tempered. People described as choleric are grouchy all the time and prone to getting into arguments, often for very little reason. The word choler comes from the medieval notion that people’s personalities are based on the balance of four different types of elemental fluids in their body, called humors. One of these was called choler—another name for yellow bile. A choleric person was thought to be generally irritable due to the amount of choler in their body. Example: She was the kind of choleric person who would get into a fight over anything and everything.
Etymology
Origin of choler
1350–1400; Middle English colera < Medieval Latin, Latin cholera < Greek choléra cholera
Vocabulary lists containing choler
"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 1
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Excerpts from "The Taming of the Shrew"
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"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Choler At Woodbridge, N. J., Joseph Chotosh, 22, drove his automobile out of his garage into a mudhole.
From Time Magazine Archive
Kudos & Choler Oedipus the King has stood well the test of 2,400 years, of almost every spoken tongue, of a multitude of translators, interpreters and tamperers.
From Time Magazine Archive
This Choler is not a meer Excrement, but on the contrary of singular Use in causing the Fermentation of the Chyle, and bringing it to perfection.
From The Compleat Surgeon or, the whole Art of Surgery explain'd in a most familiar Method. by Le Clerc, Charles Gabriel
An Erysipelas, commonly call'd St. Anthony's Fire, is a small Elevation produc'd by a Flux of Choler dispers'd and running between the Skin and the Flesh.
From The Compleat Surgeon or, the whole Art of Surgery explain'd in a most familiar Method. by Le Clerc, Charles Gabriel
Choler is hot and dry, begotten of the hotter parts of the chylus.
From The English Novel And the Principle of its Development by Lanier, Sidney
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
