spleenful
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spleenful
Explanation
A spleenful person is irritable and spiteful. If someone is full of mean, snarky comments, criticisms, complaints, and general negativity, you could call them spleenful. Spleenful is not a very common word in modern English. It's derived from the noun spleen, which is an important organ in the body that helps to form white blood cells and get rid of worn-out red blood cells. In ancient and medieval medicine, the spleen was thought to be the organ that produced "black bile," one of the four bodily humors that governed a person's temperament. Black bile was associated with a nasty, morose attitude. So spleenful is used to describe someone with a bad temper.
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.
A Peugeot had a headlight demolished by a spleenful buffalo; another car hit a giraffe.
From Time Magazine Archive
His nature was a complex affair, which combined many admirable qualities oddly mixed up with a disposition as sour and spleenful, even revengeful, as well could be.
From The Way of the Strong by Ridgwell Cullum
Mr. Arthur Whitby's parson, Mr. Norman Forbes' squire, Miss Jean Cadell's housekeeper, left no chinks in their armour for a critic's spleenful arrow.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-04-25 by Sir Owen Seaman
Careless, if envy, with a spleenful sneer, Reviles that eulogy she bates to bear, Saying with freedom's ill-assum'd pretence, 'Tis noxious flattery, o'erwhelming sense.
From Poems on Serious and Sacred Subjects Printed only as Private Tokens of Regard, for the Particular Friends of the Author by William Hayley
His fluency was as remarkable as ever, and at first as spleenful; by-and-by his outrageous mood gave way, and, in response to some of Rainham's adroit thrusts, he condescended to stand on his defence.
From A Comedy of Masks A Novel by Ernest Christopher Dowson
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.
