mordacious

From Latin mordax (“given to biting, corrosive”) (from mordere (“to bite, sting”)) + -ious.

mordacious (comparative more mordacious, superlative most mordacious)

1. Biting, causing a physical bite or sting; corrosive
2. sharp or caustic in style or tone.
3. Prone to biting, aggressive (of an animal etc.).
   • 1856, Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour, Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, page 13:

     Not gyved with connubial relations, I entered upon my migration entirely isolated, with the exception of a canine quadruped whose mordacious, latrant, lusorious, and venatic qualities, are without parity.

4. Sharp in intent, sarcastic

• mordaciously
• mordacity

• mordant
• mordancy

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “mordacious”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.