That's a bass for you: pugnacious , adaptable and ever ready to demonstrate that the first order of business on any given day, drought or no drought, is eating anything that it can fit its big, powerful mouth around. — Pete Bodo , New York Times ,

Herz sees himself as a pugnacious sardine going up against rule-flouting sharks. — Richard Wolkomir , Smithsonian ,

He was a short man with heavy shoulders, a slight potbelly, puffy blue eyes, and a pugnacious expression. — Alice Munro , New Yorker ,

Podhoretz takes a more pugnacious and protesting stance, insisting on the word "seriousness" at all times and punctuating it with the word "moral". — Christopher Hitchens , Times Literary Supplement ,

There's one pugnacious member on the committee who won't agree to anything.

a movie reviewer who is spirited, even pugnacious, when defending her opinions