| gen. |
fighting words (1. Words indicating a willingness to fight or challenge someone. EXAMPLE SENTENCES Translation: This six-letter word is fighting talk. Still to come, it's a war of words and the Democrats are studying those fighting words. ‘We're in mourning – leave us alone,' he begged, before finding his voice and a vocabulary of fighting words. 1.1US Words expressing an insult, especially of an ethnic, racial, or sexist nature. EXAMPLE SENTENCES But there was no need to touch someone you wanted to insult – you could utter fighting words instead. So why would ‘Black girl ‘yelled across a schoolyard become fighting words for me?' In the presence of fighting words, the manly form of behavior was not turning the other cheek, but rather an immediate and aggressive physical response. OD Alexander Demidov) |
