as in irritable
having or showing a habitually bad temper
a cantankerous old woman who insisted that nothing should ever be allowed to change
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Recent Examples of cantankerous
Walker says one touchpoint was the cantankerous Muppet critics Statler and Waldorf.
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Rob Salkowitz, Forbes, 30 Sep. 2024
Because the umpire, a cantankerous aging hippie, goes by the book, the game nearly doesn’t happen at all, when one guy’s obliviousness to game time risks his team being a player short.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2024
Island life is energetically rendered, and there’s an appreciation for details too — from the splinters on the giant tree an industrial beaver (Matt Berry) gnaws at daily to the fine hairs on cantankerous grizzly bear Thorn (Mark Hamill).
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Sep. 2024
However, this full moon is rather cantankerous and could bring shocks, surprises and stormy weather your way.
—Kyle Thomas, Peoplemag, 18 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for cantankerous 
Rob Salkowitz, Forbes, 30 Sep. 2024
Because the umpire, a cantankerous aging hippie, goes by the book, the game nearly doesn’t happen at all, when one guy’s obliviousness to game time risks his team being a player short.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2024
Island life is energetically rendered, and there’s an appreciation for details too — from the splinters on the giant tree an industrial beaver (Matt Berry) gnaws at daily to the fine hairs on cantankerous grizzly bear Thorn (Mark Hamill).
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Sep. 2024
However, this full moon is rather cantankerous and could bring shocks, surprises and stormy weather your way.
—Kyle Thomas, Peoplemag, 18 Aug. 2024
See all Example Sentences for cantankerous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cantankerous
Adjective
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People with anxiety may also feel irritable, tense, or restless, and may have a sense of impending danger, panic, or doom.Tribune Content Agency, The Mercury News, 14 Nov. 2024
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Max was admitted to the hospital after experiencing severe pain in July and was diagnosed with transient synovitis, a condition also referred to as irritable hip.Marina Watts, Peoplemag, 4 Aug. 2024
Adjective
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Hezbollah’s reputation in the country has suffered; many Lebanese, including the militia’s Shiite supporters, are angry at the scale of destruction of a war that many saw as unnecessary.Dina Kraft, The Christian Science Monitor, 27 Nov. 2024
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Yet just a season ago the Galaxy’s main supporters’ groups were boycotting home games, angry over the team’s lack of direction and its dysfunctional front office.Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, 26 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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Throughout the movie, the ornery Scrooge (played by George C. Scott) is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.Olatunji Osho-Williams, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Nov. 2024
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One memorable scene, in which Tom Hanks’s ornery coach Jimmy Dugan throws a baseball mitt at a sneering Stilwell, proved particularly difficult.John Russell, People.com, 19 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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There are coaches in the Premier League currently unable to navigate an interview without a surly comment or flash of ego.Sebastian Stafford-Bloor, The Athletic, 1 Aug. 2024
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Fed up with his surly demeanor and negative attitude, the station hires psychologist Dr. Ivy Reed (Essence Atkins) to infuse a level of emotion into Poppa’s talk show.Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 21 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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Buried in a bland mixed-use skyscraper in the dreary Financial District downtown, an aging, if glamorous, 1929 movie palace with rotten acoustics long served as the San Diego Symphony’s disagreeable home.Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2024
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The fasting is uncomfortable, the prep is disagreeable, and the procedure itself requires you to be put to sleep.Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, 15 Aug. 2024
Adjective
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And while there is enough splenetic wit and manic detail to generate obsessive fandom (entire sections of Web sites are dedicated to deciphering just what Kenny is mumbling), subjects like alien abduction, genetic engineering, and Kathie Lee are hardly original targets for satire.Chris Norris, SPIN, 13 Aug. 2022
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Meanwhile, the commentator and controversialist Piers Morgan, an obsessively close observer and relentless critic of Meghan, inevitably waded in with his usual splenetic views.Sarah Lyall, New York Times, 17 Sep. 2022
Adjective
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Not altogether surprising because the proliferation of guns and incendiary political rhetoric over the past few decades — and especially the last few bilious years — made the shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pa., seemingly just a matter of time.Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2024
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The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Rampant exposure to this movie on cable suggests that Scorsese’s bilious portrait of Jordan Belfort may soon join GoodFellas as one of the director’s most intensely rewatchable efforts.Will Leitch, Vulture, 8 Mar. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Cantankerous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cantankerous. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.
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