How to Use cantankerous in a Sentence

cantankerous

adjective
  • And Swank brings the right kind of cantankerous nuance to the role.
    Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 6 Oct. 2022
  • The bridge between Texas’ starters and the back end of its bullpen has long been a cantankerous revolving door.
    Shawn McFarland, Dallas News, 28 Aug. 2023
  • One of his first jobs was as a field rep trying to meet the demands of cantankerous car dealers.
    Keith Naughton, Bloomberg.com, 29 Sep. 2020
  • But John Yates Bell, the cantankerous son of Joe’s former master, has other plans for the girl.
    Atlanta Life, ajc, 7 Aug. 2017
  • Hickey, a brilliant and cantankerous wit, wrote for the ear.
    Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2021
  • In 1880s New York, a rich and cantankerous widower by the name of Horace Vandergelder is on the lookout for a wife.
    Shirley MacFarland, cleveland, 7 Nov. 2019
  • One man, a cantankerous 65-year-old miner named Misha, was eating a can of what appeared to be minced meat.
    Nabih Bulosstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 21 Apr. 2022
  • But having a permanent co-host to debate the cantankerous 71-year-old may also be a thing of the past.
    Scooby Axson, USA TODAY, 7 July 2023
  • That fixed the symptom, but this was just the beginning of a long, cantankerous journey to uncover the cause.
    Mike Sutton, Car and Driver, 15 Feb. 2018
  • Enter Shawn and Gus, who, as usual, roil the cantankerous Lassiter with their hi-jinks.
    Jeanne Jakle, ExpressNews.com, 8 July 2020
  • But this was just the beginning of a long, cantankerous journey.
    Mike Sutton, Car and Driver, 10 July 2017
  • Then again, Gibbs has been dealing with the cantankerous couple.
    Sara Netzley, EW.com, 21 Sep. 2021
  • In May, a draft of his opinion was leaked, and from start to finish it sounded cantankerous and dismissive.
    Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 28 Aug. 2022
  • Had this not been an old rule, designed to free social life from cantankerous strife, Miss Manners would have had to invent it.
    Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2021
  • David, his cantankerous neuroticism in overdrive, is still a master of the wince-laugh.
    Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY, 25 Oct. 2021
  • Gone are the days of cantankerous, old librarians and nothing but row after row of dusty old books.
    Tyler Langan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 24 May 2018
  • Say something that moves her up the ranks but clearly puts her in more direct contact with a cantankerous colleague.
    Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 7 Apr. 2022
  • Jean lives in her cantankerous late father’s house, near a Section 8 zone of abandoned or condemned homes.
    Joan Frank, Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2023
  • My dog was exquisite, a cantankerous bundle of love and light.
    Jen A. Miller, SELF, 9 Apr. 2019
  • The late Charlie Finley, the cantankerous and innovative A’s owner, no doubt would have gone for that.
    Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 23 Oct. 2022
  • The unnamed boy and Ona form a deep friendship quickly, giving a somewhat cantankerous old woman a new lease on life.
    Janet B. Carson, Arkansas Online, 27 June 2022
  • One time, while feeding geese at Liberty Park, a cantankerous goose tried to attack me.
    The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Nov. 2020
  • Any agreement made in Brussels would still have to be approved by Britain’s cantankerous House of Commons, which threw out the deal that was struck late last year and may scupper any future one, too.
    The Economist, 17 Oct. 2019
  • Daemon’s dragon is very cantankerous and twitchy and never stops moving, kind of like his rider.
    WIRED, 31 Aug. 2022
  • Even after leaving the House, Pudlin continued to serve as a devoted — and, at times, cantankerous — mentor to up-and-coming state Democrats.
    Eliza Fawcett, courant.com, 20 Mar. 2021
  • Menopause is often maligned as the end of femininity, or as a cantankerous time in a woman’s life that just goes on and on (according to Freud).
    Halley Bondy, NBC News, 13 Sep. 2019
  • Carrey portrays Ebenezer Scrooge, a cantankerous, greedy old man who is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve who show him the error of his ways.
    Keith Langston, Peoplemag, 24 Nov. 2023
  • Fighting to stay out of the system, these troubled cooks are worked to the bone by their cantankerous boss Clyde (Uzo Aduba), a vicious egotist who takes her self-loathing out on her employees.
    Bon Appétit, 23 Nov. 2021
  • With his long, bushy hair and his cantankerous on-field demeanor, Jensen became a popular figure with the fans and his toughness and work ethic won over his teammates.
    Jeff Zrebiec, baltimoresun.com, 17 Mar. 2018
  • The first guidebook to reach print covered Idaho and was written by the cantankerous novelist Vardis Fisher.
    Washington Post, 16 July 2021

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

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