How to Use bellicose in a Sentence

bellicose

adjective
Definition of bellicosenext
Synonyms for bellicosenext
  • Never in peacetime, perhaps, have the statements of our government officials been more relentlessly bellicose. Yet their actions have been comparatively cautious.
    — New Yorker, 24 June 1985
  • Kholodov is a bear of a man, both friendly and bellicose.
    — Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2022
  • His bellicose statements were designed to get the world to see North Korea as a world power.
    — Jim Michaels, USA TODAY, 24 Apr. 2018
  • That had been a far cry from his bellicose rhetoric, issued both on Twitter and from the rostrum of the United Nations last fall.
    — Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 May 2018
  • Female leaders appear to be just as bellicose as male ones, if not more so.
    — Grayson Quay, The Week, 29 June 2022
  • The best baseball team in history is about to embark on a season that would turn even the most blustery and bellicose of Dodgers hoarse.
    — Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2021
  • The tone struck me as less than bellicose, as if the Kremlin might be looking to lower the temperature.
    — Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2022
  • The United States and Iran have teetered on the brink of armed conflict in recent weeks, with both sides issuing bellicose warnings.
    — Megan Specia, BostonGlobe.com, 8 July 2019
  • China may therefore be less bellicose for the time being.
    — Michael J. Mazarr, Foreign Affairs, 9 Feb. 2024
  • Tucked around behind the wall are two side-by-side video projections, one showing the football game and the other a frenzied, bellicose crowd.
    — Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2023
  • In the House, Ms. Cheney’s policies are as bellicose as her messaging.
    — New York Times, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Kanye West, who took to the rugged plains of Wyoming to produce and later premiere his latest album, Ye, ends his predictably bellicose new record with a woman’s voice.
    — Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 1 June 2018
  • Apart from the potential for further incidents (and, no doubt, endless bellicose rhetoric) in the Middle East, there’s the simple fact that demand should peak for the year then.
    — Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2019
  • The most bellicose rhetoric from Kim’s government, which Trump matched in kind, has indeed subsided.
    — Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2019
  • The hermit nation made the bellicose statement Thursday, which corresponds with the 70th anniversary of the start of the Korean War.
    — Zachary Halaschak, Washington Examiner, 25 June 2020
  • The bellicose Mr Trump, however, would be unlikely to mind.
    — The Economist, 27 July 2019
  • Because actual power does undergird Trump’s bellicose rhetoric, the rest of the world must contend with that question, in many cases for the first time.
    — Benjamin Hart, Daily Intelligencer, 11 June 2018
  • Nerves were also calmed by the toning-down of the bellicose threats with which America’s government at first responded to the attacks.
    — The Economist, 20 Sep. 2019
  • The small gesture spoke to a big opening, a signal that Kim may be willing to break with the bellicose records of his father and grandfather and the first several years of his own time in power.
    — Brian Bennett / Singapore, Time, 12 June 2018
  • As well as his bellicose views, Mr Bolton was also criticised for his overbearing style.
    — The Economist, 10 Sep. 2019
  • The bellicose battle of cartoons and Quranic verses between Saudi Arabia and Iran isn’t new.
    — Abbas Al Lawati, CNN, 4 Nov. 2022
  • Since then, her tweets have fluctuated between the bellicose and contrite.
    — Greg Braxton, latimes.com, 14 June 2018
  • Trump's praise for Kim on Tuesday stood in stark contrast to his previous bellicose rhetoric toward the North Korean leader.
    — Jonathan Lemire and Matthew Pennington, Fox News, 26 Apr. 2018
  • This mode of comedy, whether taking aim at a bellicose first lady or Trump-supporting Black rappers, extends back to the transatlantic slave trade.
    — Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 13 Nov. 2020
  • After a year of bellicose rhetoric on North Korea, does Trump’s hawkish stance give him a political advantage to make a deal with the enemy?
    — Sarah Kreps, Washington Post, 10 May 2018
  • The backlash against those Republicans wasn’t really about the substance of the bill, but Trump’s bellicose opposition to it.
    — Michael Smolens Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Nov. 2021
  • This is not a permission slip to act as bellicose jerks or hypocritical scoundrels.
    — Andrew T. Walker, National Review, 31 Dec. 2023
  • But they are sparks in an already dangerous world, and the West remains on high alert this week as Russia takes an increasingly bellicose stance toward Ukraine.
    — New York Times, 15 Nov. 2021
  • No bellicose rhetoric could obscure the fact that existing nuclear stockpiles were enough to destroy mankind. . . .
    — Henry A. Kissinger, Foreign Affairs, 13 Oct. 2023
  • Regardless, the return to a more bellicose world, a less energy-secure world, means that more countries will turn to the energy sources—the fossil fuels—in their backyard.
    — Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, 6 July 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bellicose.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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