cantankerous

Definition

Given to or marked by an ill-tempered, quarrelsome nature; ill-tempered, cranky, crabby.

Etymology

Perhaps derived from earlier contenkerous, from contentious + rancorous.

Example Sentences

• ""She is a cantankerous old maid," added another, whom I recognised, by his voice, as a man whose attentions I had put a determined check to not six weeks before: "she is a cantankerous old maid, fretting and snarling over the loss of her beauty.""
• "Murphy's Law never proved itself more accurate than at the Nov. 18 film benefit for Persephone Press. With problems ranging from a cantankerous projector to blown fuses, the presentations of Jan Oxenberg's films were blurred, disrupted and played with lapses in their soundtracks."
• "By contrast, cantankerous and churlish people are contemptuously independent of others’ opinions, not caring enough about others and their views."