wrath

Etymology

From Middle English wraththe, wreththe, from Old English wrǣþþu, wrǣþþo (“wrath, fury”), from Proto-Germanic *wraiþiþō (“wrath, fury”), equivalent to wroth +‎ -th. Compare Dutch wreedte (“cruelty”), Danish vrede (“anger”), Swedish vrede (“wrath, anger, ire”), Icelandic reiði (“anger”). More at wroth.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹɒθ/, /ɹæθ/
• Rhymes: -ɒθ, -æθ
• The pronunciation with the vowel IPA^(key): /æ/ is regarded as incorrect by many British English speakers.
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɹæːθ/, /ɹæθ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æθ

Noun

wrath (usually uncountable, plural wraths)

1. Great anger.

   Homer relates an episode in the Trojan War that reveals the tragic consequences of the wrath of Achilles.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; Translated into Verse, from Homer, Ovid, Boccace, & Chaucer: With Original Poems, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, within Gray's Inn Gate next Gray's Inn Lane, OCLC 228732415, book I, page 17:

     For when he knew his Rival freed and gone, / He ſwells with Wrath; he makes outrageous Moan: / He frets, he fumes, he ſtares, he ſtamps the Ground; / The hollow Tow'r with Clamours rings around: […]

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

2. (rare) Punishment.
   • Bible, Romans xiii. 4

     A revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

Adjective

wrath (comparative more wrath, superlative most wrath)

1. (rare) Wrathful; very angry.

Verb

wrath (third-person singular simple present wraths, present participle wrathing, simple past and past participle wrathed)

1. (obsolete) To anger; to enrage.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Piers Plowman to this entry?)

Anagrams

• Warth, warth