Definition
Belligerent means hostile, aggressive, and ready to fight or argue. It refers to someone who is actively engaged in a conflict or contentious situation.
Pronunciation
US English
UK English
See Synonyms, Antonyms and Usage
Excerpts from News Articles
1
But North Korea is as belligerent as ever, and China is now viewed in the South as part of the problem, propping up its Communist neighbor while doing little to prevent its acquisition of missile and nuclear technology. In 2016, in the name of countering the North Korean threat, South Korea agreed to let the United States deploy a missile-defense system on its soil. China reacted with rage, its government-run media calling for boycotts of South Korean products.
2
Countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain have also backed strong EU engagement with China, even as Washington takes a harder line with what it sees as an increasingly belligerent Beijing.
3
Should the obstinate and increasingly belligerent Putin attend the meeting, South Africa must respect its obligations to the ICC and arrest him, even though Russia is a longstanding ANC ally.
4
For hundreds of years, British culture stereotyped the “native” Irish as savage, bestial, childlike, lazy, belligerent and, above all else, unruly: a tribe that needed British civilization – and, therefore, its colonization. Irish nationalists like poet W.B. Yeats, who wanted to free the whole of Ireland from British rule, felt they had to flip this script by purging the island of “Anglo” influences, reviving the Irish language and promoting Celtic arts.
5
Whether war happens will now boil down to whether bickering between Israeli political parties and individual officials will cause Tel Aviv to adopt a belligerent approach and push forward with gas production in the disputed fields before an agreement is reached. If it does, there can be little doubt that Hezbollah will open fire if its red line is crossed. Israel’s stake in the matter is additional energy revenues, while for Lebanon it is potentially a matter of life or death. Neither side wants war, but one has much to gain and the other has everything to lose.
6
And Trump called New York Attorney General Letitia James, the first Black woman to hold that title, a "racist in reverse" as he blasted the {$}250 million civil fraud lawsuit that James filed against him, several of his adult children, and the Trump Organization. Trump's belligerent remarks about his legal foes — meant to demean them and raise questions about their motivations — also underscored the scope of the peril he potentially faces in multiple courtrooms. Those cases and investigations show no signs of slowing down.
7
I’m unsurprised by recent reports of antisocial audience behaviour at theatres and performance venues. Anyone who’s been out in central London couldn’t fail to notice the simmering rage, selfishness and belligerence that increasingly spills out these days.
8
Find a respected mediator. Start unofficial talks long before the belligerents are prepared to meet publicly. Include more women and civil-society groups in the peace process.
9
The two sets of exercises could trigger a belligerent response from Pyongyang, which views the US’s military drills with its Asian allies as invasion rehearsals. North Korea has used such drills as a pretext to accelerate its own weapons development, creating a tit-for-tat cycle that has raised tensions in recent months.
10
The foreign ministers from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and the European Union are expected to focus on worries over Russia's war in Ukraine, China's increasingly belligerent rise and North Korea's provocative string of weapons' tests.
11
This could result in a push to alter Japan’s constitution to allow a more belligerent defence policy and further delay reforms to gender equality, which would go against the majority of public opinion.
12
The French president has made bold statements about Western Europe asserting its independence from Washington’s belligerent foreign policy
13
The foreign ministers from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and the European Union are expected to focus on worries over Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s increasingly belligerent rise and North Korea’s provocative string of weapons’ tests.
14
Reducing your economic efficiency is a foolish thing to do at the best of times, because it condemns our children to a lower standard of living than we have enjoyed. It is suicidal at a time when an increasingly belligerent China is rediscovering the virtues of meritocracy, but this time by producing scientists and technologists, not Confucian scholars.
15
So, too, are there increasing efforts in Taiwan to understand the nature of America’s commitment to it and the extent to which military and other support might extend – particularly if China chooses to become more belligerent toward Taiwan in the future.
16
One thing that a lot of autocrats do to prevent armed factions of the state from launching coups is to coup-proof, which means creating rival centers of power by creating an internal security apparatus. Sudan has a conventional army, the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, which is one of the belligerents now. Back in the early two-thousands, around the war in Darfur, Bashir decided to rely on janjaweed or Arab militias to engage in scorched-earth tactics and genocide.
17
The greatest disservice that could be done to the Sudanese people, to the integrity of Sudan as a sovereign state, to the security of Sudan’s neighbors, and indeed to international peace and security, would be to allow negotiations between the belligerents to yield yet another internationally endorsed compromise predicated on power-sharing. At least now it should be clear that Burhan and Hemedti are not reformers — and that they will never be reformed.
18
The official, engaged in work pertaining to the security role of the Foreign Office, was, unlike Raab, not a karate black belt, or an Oxford boxing blue. But he had been in difficult circumstances in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, and was not fazed by displays of petulant belligerence – though he accepted that some colleagues may have been upset by aspects of the foreign secretary’s behaviour.
19
It's true that Mrs. Davis delights in lots of big swings and even bigger ideas, including but not limited to rogue stage magicians; a fake Pope; a resistance movement made up entirely of muscular, sweet-natured himbos; bronco busting; a Middle-Ages-themed endurance competition, a high-tech heist, some light blasphemy, the occasional exploding head, a particularly belligerent whale and a quest for the Holy Grail.
20
If China is willing to play a guarantor and sustain a neutral position, it will bring a significant change to geopolitics in the world. In contrast, the US has in the past two decades increasingly taken sides and become belligerent in many conflicts, often becoming part of the problem rather than the solution.
21
Some of the attacks are likely funded by Iran’s enemies, too. In April 2021, for example, Facebook removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a controversial, belligerent Iranian opposition group based in Albania. And during the Trump administration, the U.
22
A speech by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on April 20 asserting that the U.S had no desire to "decouple" from China since that would be "disastrous for both countries" and "destabilizing for the rest of the world" indicated that the U.S. President Joe Biden's administration might be seriously interested in reestablishing a relationship with China which has become seriously "frayed" by a belligerent U.S.
23
“We remind both belligerents of their obligations under international humanitarian law, including obligations related to the protection of civilians,” Blinken said.
24
“This tragic violence in Sudan has already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. It’s unconscionable and it must stop,” he said. “The belligerent parties must implement an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and respect the will of the people of Sudan.”
25
“The belligerent parties must implement an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and respect the will of the people of Sudan,” Biden said.
26
"The belligerent parties must implement an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and respect the will of the people of Sudan," Biden said in a statement.
27
“This tragic violence in Sudan has already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians. It’s unconscionable and it must stop,” Biden said. “The belligerent parties must implement an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and respect the will of the people of Sudan.”
28
“The greatest disservice that could be done to the Sudanese people, to the integrity of Sudan as a sovereign state, to the security of Sudan’s neighbors, and indeed to international peace and security, would be to allow negotiations between the belligerents to yield yet another internationally endorsed compromise predicated on power-sharing.”
29
The former US president described himself as the “only candidate” who could promise to prevent the US from getting involved in World War III. If “these incompetent people” remain in office, however, there “will be a war like no other” with belligerent parties using nuclear weapons, Trump warned.
30
It would be imprudent to assume that this belligerence is just theatre, and dangerously wishful to trust that China can easily be deterred from striking at its most valued object. Yet this is precisely what some optimistic observers do. They claim the world’s democracies can readily deter China, by brandishing threats of economic coercion and military intervention, with Ukraine as a precedent.
31
In Watson’s 1968 book The Double Helix he frequently disparages Franklin, making negative comments about her appearance, her feminist principles and her emotions. In one passage Watson writes: “Given her belligerent moods, it would be difficult for Maurice Wilkins to maintain a dominant position that would allow him to think unhindered about DNA.”
32
And, in a lesson for today’s political leaders, interest in maintaining economic pressure on Russia and its war machine evaporated quickly, with key members of the bloc doubling down on economic engagement with its belligerent neighbor, perpetuating a misconstrued notion of Wandel durch Handel, or “change through trade,” instead.
33
The leaked intelligence findings, which have not been previously disclosed, also offer new insights on the obstacles Biden faces in securing global support for his efforts to reject the spread of authoritarianism, contain Russia’s belligerence beyond its borders and counter China’s growing global reach — as influential regional powers try to remain on the sidelines.
34
Upon arriving in Hungary on Friday, Francis urged Europe to find again its founding values of peaceful unity as he denounced the “adolescent belligerence ” of Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine.
35
In his opening remarks, Tacopina was belligerent and insulting. He called Carroll a liar out to make money. He repeated Trump’s denial that he had raped Carroll. He called her suit “an assault on justice.” He said he would call no witnesses of his own. He was coarse, obnoxious and disrespectful — a perfect mouthpiece for his client.