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
The story isn't linear and sometimes the character's main motivation can be reduced to the moodiness of cantankerous old men.
—
Haadiza Ogwude, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025
This isn’t just the opinion of some cantankerous Boomers who want those pesky Gen-Z kids to turn down their loud music and get off the lawn; globally, study after study has demonstrated that Gen-Z has historically low financial literacy levels.
—Benjamin Van Der Lande, Forbes.com, 25 June 2025
The Post isn’t as great as All the President’s Men — this movie is sort of like its prequel — but its cast is superb, especially Tom Hanks as a cantankerous Bill Bradlee and Meryl Streep as a conflicted Kay Graham.
—Tim Grierson, Vulture, 20 June 2025
The cantankerous bird perked up — just like his plumage — when taken off public display.
—Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 30 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for cantankerous
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cantankerous
Adjective
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However, such symptoms are hard to attribute to vaccines because infants can be irritable or fussy regardless of vaccination.—
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When the caffeine wears off, children may have a headache and feel irritable or tired.—
Adjective
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Arisu crawls onto a mound of rubble for momentary relief, and is met with an angry Banda.—
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According to police, Cooksey opened the door with blood on his hands and became angry and demanding.—
Adjective
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At 0-2, the Chiefs may be a little more ornery than usual.—
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The goal is to capitalize on the holidays when kids will be out of school and eager to see some ornery avians.—
Adjective
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In the solo debut for the writer-director Shih-Ching Tsou, a mother and her two daughters—one a surly teenager, the other a curious child—build a home in Taipei.—
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In the span of a few months rehabbing in Los Angeles in 2023, an oft-surly 40-year-old quarterback became pals with a 25-year-old goofball of a running back.—
Adjective
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Over the weekend, reports emerged that the higher tariffs followed a disagreeable Thursday phone call between Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter and Trump — which Swiss officials rejected, according to Reuters.—
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Trump and his supporters prefer a happy history, a pleasant history that arouses patriotism by overlooking disagreeable people and despicable events that sully the nation’s reputation and mar the magnificence of the American story.—
Adjective
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But Kael sensed in her less dyspeptic moments that there was something special about Redford.—
Adjective
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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.—
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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.—
Adjective
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That continues when the matriarch finally passes away 20 years later, leaving equally bilious offspring Laras (Dinda Kanyadewi) in charge.—
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Even though his bloodwork looked normal six months previously, sudden onset or acute renal failure can happen in an old dog for no apparent reason other than age and result in bilious vomiting.—
Cite this Entry
“Cantankerous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cantankerous. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.
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