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
Sunrise on the Reaping will follow a young Haymitch, who later becomes the cantankerous mentor of District 12’s famous tributes.
—
Lizz Schumer, People.com, 18 Jan. 2025
During his first term, Mr. Trump functioned less as a coach calling plays and more as a cantankerous owner demanding that his team throw out the entire playbook in the fourth quarter.
—Catie Edmondson, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2025
With a gimlet eye and a surprisingly girlish laugh, Vera is cantankerous, impatient, intensely private, unapologetically disheveled and utterly glorious.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. 2025
Asked if there’s another side of Carollo beyond his cantankerous public image, Kelley paused.
—Linda Robertson, Miami Herald, 8 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cantankerous
Lizz Schumer, People.com, 18 Jan. 2025
During his first term, Mr. Trump functioned less as a coach calling plays and more as a cantankerous owner demanding that his team throw out the entire playbook in the fourth quarter.
—Catie Edmondson, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2025
With a gimlet eye and a surprisingly girlish laugh, Vera is cantankerous, impatient, intensely private, unapologetically disheveled and utterly glorious.
—Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. 2025
Asked if there’s another side of Carollo beyond his cantankerous public image, Kelley paused.
—Linda Robertson, Miami Herald, 8 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cantankerous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cantankerous
Adjective
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Cold exposure is particularly helpful for those who have irritable skin through the constriction of blood vessels, alleviating swelling and flushes.—
Lucy Notarantonio,
Newsweek,
24 Feb. 2025
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The elderly single mom, played with an irritable, bone-deep bitterness by Irish actor Fiona Shaw, has spent the past few years paralyzed by an illness no one can diagnose.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
14 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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Trashing a guy’s car is nothing new among angry exes, but one Florida woman took it to an absurd level after having a little too much to drink, according to Florida investigators.—
Mark Price,
Miami Herald,
27 Feb. 2025
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One of her twisted arms is lopped off by an angry audience member and turns into a firehose of blood.—
Scottie Andrew,
CNN,
27 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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The offensive line, in Monken’s estimation, is the most talented and possibly most ornery unit he’s had at West Point, all the way down to wrestling each other to settle arguments about who’s tougher.—
Brian Hamilton,
The Athletic,
21 Nov. 2024
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They’re led by John Dutton III, an ornery character who nevertheless carries the kind of gravitas that only a veteran movie star like Kevin Costner can bring.—
Noel Murray,
Vulture,
18 Nov. 2024
Adjective
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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, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tyler Roys told USA TODAY on Sunday as that national weather picture for the holiday grew sharper.—
John Bacon,
USA TODAY,
24 Nov. 2024
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Greg and Tanya show up in Season 2, after the surly Greg insisted on a Sicilian trip.—
Bryan Alexander,
USA TODAY,
17 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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The United States’s three most powerful European allies disagree with its plan for ending the brutal, destructive stalemate in Ukraine, with Germany the most disagreeable.—
Dominic Green,
Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government,
21 Feb. 2025
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Sometimes that means confronting disagreeable people.—
David Plazas,
The Tennessean,
24 Apr. 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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In the Nineties, the report became a staple in the bilious feedstock of right-wing militias, part of a slurry of propaganda that turned legitimate grievances into the conviction that FEMA agents in unmarked black helicopters were soon to enact a new world order.—
Dan Piepenbring,
Harper's Magazine,
19 Feb. 2025
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The death chamber is nine feet by twelve feet, painted a bilious turquoise.—
Lawrence Wright,
The New Yorker,
10 Feb. 2025
Articles Related to cantankerous
Cite this Entry
“Cantankerous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cantankerous. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.
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