Meaning of in anger | Babel Free

Definitions

1. With the intent of causing damage or harm to an opponent; in combat, rather than in peacetime training.
   especially
2. In a real situation, rather than only in theory or as part of practice or learning.

Examples

“The Napier of Magdala Battery never fired a shot in anger: it never engaged in combat.”

“These craft [flying boats] were never perfected, never flown in anger and destroyed at war's end.”

“Over the years, B52s have been deployed in anger by the US Air Force in two conflicts, Vietnam and the Gulf. Despite the outcome of the former, the B52 acquitted itself with success both as a tactical bomber and in the strategic role […]”

“And what actinic, mind-wrenching form could the countermeme take? How could human hands assemble something so devastatingly powerful and hold it steady; what human mind could wield it without exploding from the inside out? What would deploying that concept in anger do to human ideatic space? How far out from the solution is modern memetic science, a year, a century? What insane impossibility has Hughes just committed himself to?”

“Sunday morning’s US raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities, involved more than 125 military aircraft and saw the first use in anger of the GBU-57 bunker buster, said to penetrate 60m underground before exploding.”

“"Have you used it in anger yet?" The time is a dozen years ago, the place is Oxford, and my fellow postdoc has just scrutinized my new bike. He's admired the chrome, checked the gears, noted the Kryptonite lock. Now he wants to know if I've used it to serious purpose. Gleaming chrome is well and good, but will it run you through the woods? "Have you used it in anger yet?"”

“On the bench was Lorenzo Amoruso, who had yet to kick a ball in anger for the first team as he had been injured since his arrival the previous summer. He only had to wait nineteen minutes before he made his Rangers bow, as he was pitched into the white-hot heat of the Parkhead cauldron[…]”

“At that point, Stoley gave up the cause and the Argonauts faded from history, still having yet to kick a ball in anger.”

CEFR level