bilious.

1. Relating to bile or showing a condition traditionally attributed to excess bile, especially nausea or digestive illness.

2. Irritable, peevish, or full of ill-tempered resentment.

3. Having an unpleasant yellowish or greenish coloration associated with bile.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• bilious vomiting
• a bilious attack

On the page

The older journal called the illness a bilious attack.

The clinician described bilious vomiting without treating the color as a complete diagnosis.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror. Forms: Comparative more bilious; superlative most bilious where gradation is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.