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PUNGENT
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Capable of wounding
Example:
pungent satire
Synonyms:
barbed; biting; mordacious; nipping; pungent
Classified under:
Similar:
sarcastic (expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds)
Derivation:
pungency (wit having a sharp and caustic quality)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Strong and sharp
Example:
the acrid smell of burning rubber
Synonyms:
acrid; pungent
Classified under:
Similar:
tasty (pleasing to the sense of taste)
Derivation:
pungency (a strong odor or taste property)
Context examples:
A formidable array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the chemical work which was so dear to him.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"All the Brassicas — be they Indian mustard, broccoli or Brussels sprouts — make these pungent, sulfur-smelling compounds, the glucosinolates," Jez said.
(Is a milder mustard on the way?, National Science Foundation)
It was not alone that it was composed of all the ills of mortality and with the pungent, acrid smell of blood, but it seemed as though corruption had become itself corrupt.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
I felt a drop or two of blood from my head trickle down my neck, and was sensible of somewhat pungent suffering: these sensations for the time predominated over fear, and I received him in frantic sort.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The phial, to which I next turned my attention, might have been about half full of a blood-red liquor, which was highly pungent to the sense of smell and seemed to me to contain phosphorus and some volatile ether.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
But even in India and China, where these members of the Brassica genus have been cultivated for more than 4,000 years, scientists have sought to tone down the chemical compounds responsible for their pungent flavor.
(Is a milder mustard on the way?, National Science Foundation)
Surely the Mary Ann Wilson I have mentioned was inferior to my first acquaintance: she could only tell me amusing stories, and reciprocate any racy and pungent gossip I chose to indulge in; while, if I have spoken truth of Helen, she was qualified to give those who enjoyed the privilege of her converse a taste of far higher things.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
I like you more than I can say; but I'll not sink into a bathos of sentiment: and with this needle of repartee I'll keep you from the edge of the gulf too; and, moreover, maintain by its pungent aid that distance between you and myself most conducive to our real mutual advantage.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The sarcasm that had repelled, the harshness that had startled me once, were only like keen condiments in a choice dish: their presence was pungent, but their absence would be felt as comparatively insipid.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Turning me around by one arm he moved a broad flat hand along the front vista, including in its sweep a sunken Italian garden, a half acre of deep pungent roses and a snub-nosed motor boat that bumped the tide off shore.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
