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crabbed

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verb

past tense of crab
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Synonym Chooser

How is the word crabbed different from other adjectives like it?

Some common synonyms of crabbed are gloomy, glum, morose, saturnine, sulky, sullen, and surly. While all these words mean "showing a forbidding or disagreeable mood," crabbed applies to a forbidding morose harshness of manner.

the school's notoriously crabbed headmaster

In what contexts can gloomy take the place of crabbed?

The synonyms gloomy and crabbed are sometimes interchangeable, but gloomy implies a depression in mood making for seeming sullenness or glumness.

a gloomy mood ushered in by bad news

When might glum be a better fit than crabbed?

While in some cases nearly identical to crabbed, glum suggests a silent dispiritedness.

a glum candidate left to ponder a stunning defeat

How do morose and glum relate to one another, in the sense of crabbed?

Morose adds to glum an element of bitterness or misanthropy.

morose job seekers who are inured to rejection

When is saturnine a more appropriate choice than crabbed?

The meanings of saturnine and crabbed largely overlap; however, saturnine describes a heavy forbidding aspect or suggests a bitter disposition.

a saturnine cynic always finding fault

When can sulky be used instead of crabbed?

In some situations, the words sulky and crabbed are roughly equivalent. However, sulky suggests childish resentment expressed in peevish sullenness.

grew sulky after every spat

When is it sensible to use sullen instead of crabbed?

The words sullen and crabbed are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, sullen implies a silent ill humor and a refusal to be sociable.

remained sullen amid the festivities

When would surly be a good substitute for crabbed?

While the synonyms surly and crabbed are close in meaning, surly implies gruffness and sullenness of speech or manner.

a typical surly teenager

Examples Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of crabbed
Adjective
This is a crabbed and mendacious interpretation of the law. Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 5 Apr. 2024 Tár, though, displays little more than crabbed irritability and self-serving cynicism. Justin Davidson, Vulture, 11 Oct. 2022 This is a truly crabbed and reductive view of the man and his work. Los Angeles Times, 15 Apr. 2021 Guston’s searingly funny caricatures of Richard M. Nixon and his corrupt White House cronies, drawn mostly in short, crabbed lines, have been exhibited only twice before — once in Manhattan (2016) and once in London (2017). Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2019 No one can accuse this Court of having a crabbed view of the reach of its competence. WSJ, 27 June 2019 The core error here is the Texas Supreme Court’s crabbed understanding of Obergefell. Dale Carpenter, Washington Post, 2 July 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for crabbed
Adjective
  • The New Daughter has an interesting, sullen mood and looks fantastic, but that just further accentuates how out of place Costner seems.
    Will Leitch, Vulture, 1 July 2024
  • One of the migrants looks at the camera with sullen eyes and a rugged beard.
    Kunal Sehgal, CNN, 22 Oct. 2024
Verb
  • The year before, the prison had been the site of two back-to-back riots in which inmates had burned mattresses to protest inadequate medical care and the persistent use of solitary confinement to punish prisoners who complained.
    Jesse Hyde, Rolling Stone, 4 Jan. 2025
  • On March 4, 2021, Williams complained to Rollins that everyone was still ignoring his advice.
    Joshua Kaplan, ProPublica, 4 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Sometimes that means confronting disagreeable people.
    David Plazas, The Tennessean, 24 Apr. 2024
  • The most important reason to avoid obsessing over China’s disagreeable regime, however, is that this fixation threatens a core U.S. advantage: Washington’s wide network of partners and allies.
    Evan S. Medeiros, Foreign Affairs, 8 July 2021
Verb
  • But others argue these budget controls are ensuring Connecticut won’t return to the 2010s, a decade marred by frequent annual deficits and some of the largest tax hikes in state history.
    Keith M. Phaneuf, Hartford Courant, 4 Jan. 2025
  • The couple welcomed two children, True, 6, and Tatum, 2, but their romance was marred by Thompson's multiple cheating scandals.
    Dan Perry, Newsweek, 4 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • And there was a bar in the basement, a brilliant bar with a fantastically grumpy bar lady called Eileen.
    Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 3 Jan. 2025
  • The cat's owner went to sit on the couch without realizing his grumpy cat was already there in his spot.
    Dan Perry, Newsweek, 3 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • Lincoln Hospital was where Shirley Vasquez and all the other parents, like her, took their children when they were injured or ill.
    Cary Goodman, New York Daily News, 5 Jan. 2025
  • People who don’t understand, like, people get injured.
    Law Murray, The Athletic, 5 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Their surly landlord lurks around the apartment complex collecting rent on units in need of desperate repair.
    Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Jan. 2025
  • The Pacific Northwest, which has played host to a series of surly atmospheric rivers and a bomb cyclone in recent days, should finally quiet down.
    Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 25 Nov. 2024
Verb
  • His vengeance included turning Michigan State in for NCAA violations, leading to probation that crippled the program until the late 1970s.
    Joe Rexrode, The Athletic, 31 Dec. 2024
  • As the city litigated and revised the environmental impact report, two devastating storms in December 2023 and February 2024 — the same series that crippled San Diego’s Ocean Beach Pier — substantially damaged the wharf.
    Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2024

Thesaurus Entries Near crabbed

Cite this Entry

“Crabbed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/crabbed. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.

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