Definition of Cantankerous

1. Adjective. Stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate. "Unions...have never been as bloody-minded about demarcation as the shipbuilders"


2. Adjective. Having a difficult and contrary disposition. "A cantankerous and venomous-tongued old lady"
Exact synonyms: Crotchety, Ornery
Similar to: Ill-natured
Derivative terms: Crotchet, Crotchetiness, Orneriness

Definition of Cantankerous

1. a. Perverse; contentious; ugly; malicious.

Definition of Cantankerous

1. Adjective. given to or marked by an ill-tempered nature, ill-tempered, cranky, surly, crabby. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Cantankerous

1. [adj]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Cantankerous

cant over
cant strip
cantabile
cantabiles
cantal
cantala
cantalas
cantalope
cantaloup
cantaloupe
cantaloupe vine
cantaloupes
cantaloupey
cantaloups
cantals
cantankerous (current term)
cantankerously
cantankerousness
cantar
cantars
cantata
cantatas
cantate
cantates
cantation
cantations
cantatory
cantatrice
cantatrices
cantatrici

Literary usage of Cantankerous

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Holiday in Gaol by Frederic Martyn (1911)
"CHAPTER XLII THE cantankerous man was a most cantankerous fellow, and got his own way in almost everything by dint of perseverance. ..."

2. A Dictionary of English Synonymes and Synonymous Or Parallel Expressions by Richard Soule, George Holmes Howison (1891)
"•игл-, testy, touchy, cantankerous, crusty, fretful, peevish, petulant, pettish, snappish, waspish, marling, cynical, ..."

3. Fraser's Magazine by Thomas Carlyle (1866)
"Let me, not unkindly, set forth the praises of cantankerous and Pig-headed Folly ; and show certain reasons why it is profitable to a human being that he be ..."

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