[f. WAR sb.1 + MONGER sb.] One who traffics in war, Contemptuously applied to: † a. a mercenary soldier (Obs. rare–1); b. one who seeks to bring about war. So Warmongering vbl. sb. and ppl. a. (in recent newspaper use).
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. x. 29. As much disdeigning to be so misdempt, Or a war-monger to be basely nempt.
1817. Hazlitt, Effects War & Taxes, Wks. 1902, III. 249. This is a singular slip of the pen in so noisy and triumphant a war-monger as the Poet Laureate.
1840. Weekly Dispatch, 9 Aug., 379/2. With respect to the affairs of Turkey, our war-mongering Journalists are so fond of making much of, the case is very simple.
1862. J. Bright, Lett., in Trevelyan, Life (1913), 316. The war-mongers here are baffled for the time.
1878. E. Jenkins, Haverholme, 76. His bitter scoffs at the Chauvinists and war-mongers.
