bad-tempered
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of bad-tempered
First recorded in 1920–25
Explanation
Someone who's bad-tempered is cranky and surly. Your bad-tempered next door neighbor might spend the weekend yelling at kids, "Stay off of my lawn!" Oscar the Grouch is a good example of a bad-tempered Sesame Street character. Bad-tempered people are grouchy by nature, although you can have a bad-tempered day or an unusually bad-tempered reaction to some terrible news or a visit from your least favorite cousin. Your temper is your state of mind or your mood, so to be bad-tempered is to be in a bad mood.
Vocabulary lists containing bad-tempered
Negative Words to Describe People
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"The Legend of the Yakwawiak"
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Irritable, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On Wednesday, the usual bad-tempered jibes and angry exchanges witnessed in the political theatre of the weekly Prime Minister's Questions, were replaced by gentle ribbing.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
He chose that particular name because “it conjured up someone old-fashioned and bad-tempered lamenting the state of the world through the window of a London club while clutching his glass of port.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
On paper, it might sound like fun for an actor to play such a juicy, bad-tempered character.
From BBC ● Dec. 19, 2024
In Nigeria, for example, a small and bad-tempered snake called the West African carpet viper is responsible for most of the country's bites.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 23, 2023
The lifeguard was the one who saved him, curling three tentacles around Daniel to draw him away from a bad-tempered eel who had started shouting about “crazy kids” on his lawn.
From "Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody" by Patrick Ness
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
