Definition of "pugnacity" [pug•nac•i•ty]

• The act or characteristic of being aggressive or combative. (noun)

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• "Thus, for McDougall, the tender emotion is the emotional aspect of the instinct of pity, anger of the instinct of pugnacity, which is, as an impulse, the tendency to strike and destroy."
• "Man is once for all a fighting animal; centuries of peaceful history could not breed the battle-instinct out of us; and our pugnacity is the virtue least in need of reinforcement by reflection, least in need of orator's or poet's help."
• "He has the kind of pugnacity which prompts a cur or a puppy to attack a"