I. ˈfi(ə)rs, ˈfiəs adjective
( -er/-est )
Etymology: Middle English fers, fiers, from Old French, from Latin ferus wild, savage, cruel; akin to Greek thēr wild animal, Old Slavic zvěrĭ
1.
a. : marked by grim, pugnacious, or wild hostility : merciless
fierce fighting
b. : given to fighting or killing : savagely intractable and likely to attack
fierce native tribes
2.
a. : marked by furious unrestrained zeal or vehemence
a fierce argument
: heated or violent in nature : without moderation, restraint, or control
a fierce temper
b.
(1) : extremely vexatious, disappointing, or hard to bear : crushing
fierce pain
(2) : unpleasantly or uncomfortably intense or extreme
a fierce light
a fierce silence
3.
a. obsolete : proud , arrogant
b. : wild, unfriendly, or menacing in aspect or appearance
a fierce old hermit
fierce and barren moors
4.
a. : furiously active : extremely eager
a fierce effort
: violent
a fierce dash up the mountainside
b. dialect England : in vigorous health or spirits : chipper
Synonyms:
ferocious , fell , savage , cruel , inhuman , barbarous are applied to persons and their actions. fierce may connote wild menacing demonstration, grim, invincible determination, or feral combativeness
the treaty was received with a fierce outburst of indignation. Jay was burned in effigy by wild mobs; angry orators and editors heaped execration upon Washington — Allan Nevins & H.S.Commager
the fiercest and most treacherous of foes, whose way is to dash upon their prey amid the tempest — H.O.Taylor
a fierce tiger of crime, which could only be taken fighting hard with flashing fang and claw — A. Conan Doyle
ferocious may indicate a complete insensible lack of mercy, a wild bloodthirstiness
the ferocious slaughters instituted … by barbarian conquerers — Lewis Mumford
ferocious countenances which had been glaring at the prisoner a moment before, as if with impatience to pluck him out into the streets and kill him — Charles Dickens
fell may combine notions of direness, malignancy, murderousness, or wasting enervation
murdered by his cruel uncle's mandate fell — S.T.Coleridge
like a famine or plague or aught more fell — P.B.Shelley
we cannot tell what the course of this fell war will be as it spreads, remorseless — Sir Winston Churchill
savage may indicate the wild mercilessness of uncivilized tribal society or an utter, nearly animal lack of compunction or inhibition
the son … had been trained in savage Sicilian loyalty and lived only to avenge his father — G.K.Chesterton
cruel indicates pleasure in or callous indifference to pain inflicted on or anticipated or wished for another
he became haughty, tyrannical, and cruel. You must have heard tales in Tahiti of how he punished his men by whipping them till the blood ran down their backs — C.B.Nordhoff & J.N.Hall
cruel, and full of hate and malice and a petty rage — G.D.Brown
inhuman indicates a nonhuman insensateness to pain or suffering or, occas., to concern, vexation, or chagrin
there an inhuman and uncultured race … rushed to war, tore from the mother's womb the unborn child — P.B.Shelley
there were few inhuman barbarities aside from the custom of scalping — American Guide Series: Maine
barbarous suggests the cruelty or indifference to suffering and pain of the uncivilized
you have been wantonly attacked by a ruthless and barbarous aggressor. Your capital has been bombed, your women and children brutally murdered — Sir Winston Churchill
he required as a condition of peace that they should sacrifice their children to Baal no longer. But the barbarous custom was too inveterate and too agreeable to Semitic modes of thought to be so easily eradicated — J.G.Frazer
II. adverb
Etymology: Middle English fers, fiers, from fers, fiers, adjective
: fiercely , terribly , awfully