Definition of "atrabilious" [at•ra•bil•ious]

• Inclined to melancholy. (adjective)
• Having a peevish disposition; surly. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I suggest "atrabilious", from the Latin for black bile, thought by the ancients to be one of the body's four "humours"."
• "No doubt the usual cavalcade of atrabilious right-wing commentators will work overtime to try and distort Obama's remarks."
• "But despite the gloomy nonsense of certain atrabilious dreamers, the wonderful era of the Greeks was that of the reign of the courtesans."