bilious — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Of or pertaining to something containing or consisting of bile.

2. Resembling bile, especially in color.

   Examples

   More examples (4)

   Does money fail?—come to my mint—coin paper, Till gold be at a discount, and ashamed To show his bilious face, go purge himself, In emulation of her vestal whiteness.

   His complexion was pale, not of that deadly pallor which is a kind of neutral beauty, but of a bilious, yellow hue; his colorless hair was short and scarcely extended beyond the circle formed by the hat around his head, and his light blue eyes seemed destitute of any expression.

   The business-center of Schoenstrom took up one side of one block, facing the railroad. It was a row of one-story shops covered with galvanized iron, or with clapboards painted red and bilious yellow.

   A beautiful girl once told me of a recurring nightmare in which she lay in the center of a large dark room and felt her face expand until it filled the whole room, becoming a formless mass while her eyes ran in bilious jelly up the chimney.

3. Suffering from real or supposed liver disorder, especially excessive secretions of bile.

   Examples

   Perry tells me that Mr. Cole never touches malt liquor. You would not think it to look at him, but he is bilious—Mr. Cole is very bilious.

4. Peevishly ill-humored, irritable or bad tempered; irascible.

   Synonyms

   cholericirasciblepeevishtestycrankysplenetic

   Antonyms

   pleasantamiablegood-naturedgenialeven-tempered

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   The glorified spirit of a great statesman and philosopher dawdling, like a bilious old Nabob at a watering-place, over quarterly reviews and novels—dropping in to pay long calls—making excursions in search of the picturesque!

   The boarders, sharp-tongued bilious widows, pursued the only man in the establishment, a mild, bald creature who worked in La Samaritaine […]

Adjective

1. relating to or containing bile

   Synonyms

   biliary

2. suffering from or suggesting a liver disorder or gastric distress

   Synonyms

   liverishlivery

3. irritable as if suffering from indigestion

   Synonyms

   atrabiliousdyspepticliverish