Still, the neighborhood's pugnacious spirit is far from moribund.

In spite of his apparent demureness he had a pugnacious spirit and a quick fist.

Joan's pugnacious spirit embroiled her in many more fights over the years for the recognition of equality of people with disabilities.

Icing on the cake is Ms. Noonan's quick wit, pugnacious spirit and truly pretty features.

A fourth-generation Dunwoody Labour politician, she shares her mother’s enthusiasms, if not her pugnacious spirit.

With a serene exterior but a pugnacious spirit, Bernhard Langer took scant notice of the tepid challenges thrown at him today and put on a clinical display of mistake-free golf to win the 57th Masters.

Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut modernises its source material, reimagining this tale of a banished Roman general as a contemporary urban war movie that makes full use of cinema’s capacity for visceral imagery to match the violent, pugnacious spirit of the language.

Perhaps the paps will get a taste of this pugnacious spirit as his fame grows as a result of such films as The Extra Man, due out next year, and Ang Lee’s forthcoming Taking Woodstock, released in October, in which Dano has a small role as a hippy.