Definition of "choleric"

And let a man beware, how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.

1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Travel”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret

From a choleric man withdraw a little; from him that says nothing for ever.

1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 146

As it was clear that he was a choleric fellow in some respects, Mr Swiveller was relieved to find him in such good humour, and, to encourage him in it, smiled himself.

1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Thirty-fifth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841

Beneath his choleric exterior Gerald O’Hara had the tenderest of hearts.

1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944,

What, what, my lord! are you so cholericWith Eleanor, for telling but her dream?

1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]

How angry the poor devil is! In fine, thou art as choleric as a cook by a fireside.

1667, John Dryden, Sir Martin Mar-all‎, act V, scene 1

For God’s ſake, Madam, vvhy ſo Cholerick? I ſay, this Letter is ſome Forgery; […]

1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “An Account of the Conference between Mrs. Bull and Don Diego Dismallo”, in John Bull in His Senses: Being the Second Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], Edinburgh: […] James Watson, […], page 20

I now proceed to enumerate those lesions and morbid changes found in the bodies of those cut off by cholera, which must have preceded the appearance of the disease, and which, existing, as they did, in very different organs, had no connection with the choleric symptoms, but nevertheless rendered the chance of recovery much less likely.

1833, David Craigie, “Observations, pathological and therapeutic, on the epidemic cholera, as it has prevailed in Edinburgh and its vicinity”, in Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, number 114, page 21

I fear it is too choleric a meat.How say you to a fat tripe finely broil’d?

c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]

The cholerics show ambition, stubbornness, love of work, courage […]

c. 1915, John Adams, Making the Most of One’s Mind‎, New York: Hodder & Stoughton, page 21

No one utters more caustic comments than a sarcastic choleric!

1984, Tim LaHaye, Your Temperament: Discover its Potential, republished as Why You Act the Way You Do, Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House, 2012

Persons laboring under pulmonary affections appear to be less liable than others, though I have found softened tubercles in some cholerics.

1832, Ashbel Smith, The Cholera Spasmodica‎, New York: P. Hill, page 59