violent

Formsviolents, violenting, violented

Pluralviolents

1. 1
   adjective

   Involving physical conflict in which people are attacked or hurt.

   The demonstration became violent as protesters clashed with riot police.

   He has a history of violent confrontations with his neighbors.

   Similarbrutal, bloody, aggressive, physical

   Oppositepeaceful

   Note

   Here the force is aimed at people, and the word describes events and methods: violent means, violent protest, violent campaigns. Its natural foil is nonviolent. David Robson, writing in 2019, sets nonviolent campaigns against violent ones. A violent clash describes what happened, not what someone is like; a person's tendency toward force belongs to the "dangerous person" meaning.

2. 2
   adjective

   Inclined or likely to use physical force to harm others.

   He became violent whenever he drank too much.

   The facility houses some of the country's most violent offenders.

   Similaraggressive, dangerous, brutal, vicious

   Oppositegentle, peaceful, harmless

3. 3
   adjective

   Marked by extreme physical force or powerful, uncontrolled motion.

   A violent explosion shook the entire building.

   Violent winds uprooted trees all along the coast.

   Similarpowerful, fierce, forceful, strong, intense

   Oppositegentle, mild, calm

   Note

   Here the word is closest to its origin. Latin violentus comes from vīs, "strength". It reached English through Old French and displaced the native Old English stræc. The sense suits winds, blasts and collisions, where sheer force is the whole point. Comparison works either way: violenter and violentest exist alongside more violent and most violent.

4. 4
   adjective

   Extremely intense, acute, or sharp in degree.

   She woke in the night with a violent fever.

   A violent craving for sugar hit him every afternoon.

   Similarsevere, intense, acute, raging, fierce

   Oppositemild, slight

5. 5
   adjective

   Strikingly bright or intense, as of a color.

   The painter favored violent hues that dominated the canvas.

   Violent streaks of crimson lit the evening sky.

   Similarvivid, intense, garish, lurid, bright

   Oppositemuted, pale, soft, subdued

   Note

   Strength becomes intensity of impression. Colors are the familiar case, but the stretch once reached feelings too. In Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749), a good-natured fellow declares his violent attachment to Jones, which is passionate rather than aggressive. In older prose, then, the word often means overwhelming rather than harmful, and reading it as hostile misses the point.

6. 6
   adjective

   Brought about by force rather than occurring naturally or spontaneously.

   Records suggested the king had come to a violent death.

   A violent overthrow of the government left the country in chaos.

   Similarforcible, unnatural

   Oppositenatural, peaceful

   Note

   The opposite of natural: what is forced out of its proper course. Thomas Burnet holds that no violent state can be perpetual. Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) dismisses vows made in pain as violent and void. Shakespeare's "These violent delights have violent ends" plays on the same idea. Modern ears still hear it in violent death, a death that did not come naturally.

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