bad-tempered

adjective

bad-tem·pered ˈbad-ˈtem-pərd

: easily annoyed or angered : having or showing a bad temper : surly, ill-tempered

Bad-tempered drivers banged on the door and left cursing without a fare.—

Deborah Levy

It's not a good idea to make a love story about two people who are so self-absorbed, sniveling and bad-tempered that the audience wants them to end up in a dumpster, not living happily ever after. Ralph Novak

Examples of bad-tempered in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Moose mothers, having lost a significant portion of their young, can also be bad-tempered by the time June rolls around. —

Jim Geraghty, Washington Post, 20 June 2024 Who among us has not gazed in dismay at a world that’s not just increasingly bad-tempered, but seems to hold against each one of us some focused, individual grudge? —

Jessica Kiang, Variety, 9 Oct. 2023 In Nigeria, for example, a small and bad-tempered snake called the West African carpet viper is responsible for most of the country's bites. —

Cassandra Willyard, Scientific American, 19 Sep. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bad-tempered.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.