English

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Etymology

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From war +‎ -ful.

Adjective

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warful (comparative more warful, superlative most warful)

  1. Indicative of war; warlike.
    • 1733, Paul Whitehead, The State Dunces:
      Hence the long Train of never-ending Jars / Of warful Peaces, and of peaceful Wars, []
    • 1943, Linus R. Fike, No nation alone: a plan for organized peace, page 56:
      Sabotage being itself a warful act and carrying its own penalty, would not excuse the original unwarful act nor any subsequent unwarful acts of counter-retaliation.
    • 2003, Richard Schechner, The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and Performance, page 181:
      The similarity of these Indian and Greek tales of far-ranging warful travels should not surprise us: their authors were people of the horse, they rode far in several directions—south, west, east—from their “origins” in the Caucasus region; []

Derived terms

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