Of a person: Stiff, unbending, stubborn; stern, surly. Also of looks, etc.

figurative. Of persons or their attributes: Disposed to resist, oppose, or obstruct; cross-grained; perverse, froward, obstinate, stubborn, awkward.

Of or pertaining to elves; having the nature of an elf; supernatural, weird.

Peevish, crabbed; perverse, contrarious.

= 2.

transferred of things.

Angry, irate, cross, crabbed. Obsolete.

(Usually spelt curst.) Of persons (or their dispositions, tongues, etc.): Malignant; perversely disagreeable or cross; cantankerous, shrewish…

In weakened use: ill-tempered, surly; sullen, morose. Now with some mixture of sense A. 1d: having an air of sullen obstinacy.

figurative. Like a cur in nature; snappish, snarling, quarrelsome; mean-spirited, base, ignoble.

Of a person. Unpleasant in temperament or disposition; ill-tempered, surly; unfriendly, rude.

Of a person, a person's disposition or behaviour, etc.: characterized by taciturnity, pessimism, or morose humourlessness. Also of a person's…

Perverse, contrary; obstinate, stubborn; bad-tempered, peevish, cross. Also occasionally as adv.: †in a bad-tempered manner, peevishly (obsolete).

Gloomy; fierce. Scottish. Obsolete.

Sharp-tempered, harsh.

figurative. Of persons (or their dispositions, etc.): Short of temper; harshly curt in manner or speech: the opposite of suave or affable.

Of persons or their dispositions: Troublesome, difficult to get on with. Obsolete.

Choleric, wrathful, peevish, ill-tempered.

ill-tempered.

Forming parasynthetic adjectives with the sense ‘having a mouth, face, etc., which is twisted or contorted with anger, pain, irritation, etc…

Forming parasynthetic adjectives with the sense ‘having a mouth, face, etc., which is twisted or contorted with anger, pain, irritation, etc…

? Peevish, cross-grained, crabbed.

In wider sense: ill-natured, ill-tempered; of a sharp or cross-grained nature. Also in extended use.

Bad-tempered, fractious, disagreeable.

Cross, crabbed.

Having a bad temper; ill-conditioned; morose, cross, peevish. (In first quot. scarcely distinguishable from 1.)

Like or after the nature of a cur.

Forming parasynthetic adjectives with the sense ‘having a mouth, face, etc., which is twisted or contorted with anger, pain, irritation, etc…

Of persons, their dispositions, actions, etc.. Ill-tempered, peevish, petulant; in an irritable frame of mind, out of humour, vexed. (colloquial).

Splenetic, ill-natured, spiteful.

Disposed to mock or flout; jesting, sneering; also, cross, ill-tempered.

Of persons: Perverse, cross. Obsolete. rare.

Having a bad temper; easily annoyed or angered; ill-tempered.

†(a) passionate, lustful (obsolete); (b) bad-tempered, irascible.

Surly, moody, bad-tempered. Also: haughty, proud.

Cross, angry, ill-tempered.

= ordinary, adj.; commonplace, inferior, unpleasant; (now) esp. mean, cantankerous, contrary.

Scottish and English regional (northern) Cankered; ill-humoured, bad-tempered.

Harsh, ill-tempered; rude, surly, boorish.

Showing an ill-natured disposition; ill-conditioned and quarrelsome, perverse, cross-grained.

Cross-tempered; also, like a frump, dowdy.

Scottish. Ill-natured; bad-tempered. Obsolete. rare.

Surly, ill-tempered.

= crabbed, adj. 1 9.

= grumpy, adj.

Twisted, turned awry. Also in combinations = wry, adj., as thraw-gabbit adj. wry-mouthed, peevish. thraw-necked adj. having the neck twisted.

Somewhat snarly or ill-tempered.

Of capricious or wayward temper, difficult to please; cross-tempered, awkward; ‘cross’.

Sulky, obstinate; curt, blunt. dialect.

Irritable in temper; peevish, cross. Scottish.

Peevish, complaining. In later use: talkative, chattering.

Ill-tempered, quarrelsome, ‘ornery’; = cantankerous, adj.

Having a very bad temper; easily annoyed or angered.

Having the humours of the body depraved; ‘ill-humoured’ (in body, and jocularly, in disposition).

Of persons, their dispositions, actions, etc.. as cross as two sticks (with play on sense 1b).

= grumpy, adj.

(See quots.)

Bad-tempered; quarrelsome; cantankerous.

Obstinate or stubborn, esp. to the point of causing annoyance or frustration; cantankerous, contrary. Cf. cursed, adj. 4a.

figurative. Awkward, cross-grained, peevish; cf. angular, adj. 6 (Also quasi-adv.)

dialect or slang. Angry, curt, short-tempered; pert, saucy, impudent; proud, conceited. Now esp. supercilious, aloof, ‘snooty’.

Prone or inclined to sniff; scornful, contemptuous, disdainful; disagreeable, ill-tempered.

colloquial or slang. Ill-tempered, captious, disagreeable.

Grumbly, ill-tempered.

figurative. Ill-tempered, peevish, catty.

Applied to persons: tough, hard, unyielding; also, aggressive, ‘stroppy’. U.S. dialect or slang.

Bad-tempered, rebellious, awkward, obstreperous, unruly.

Ill-tempered, sulky.

Originally and chiefly British. Bad-tempered, unpleasant, disagreeable. Cf. arse, n. 3.