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.

A certain crabbedness entered his nature through his sense of frustration.

From Time Magazine Archive

It is as bad as the intentional crabbedness of the line in Hudibras: He that hangs or beats out’s brains, The devil’s in him if he feigns.

From English Critical Essays Nineteenth Century by Jones, Edmund David

It was postmarked "New York," but the hand was large and round and flourished, not in the least like his uncle's sexagenarian crabbedness of hieroglyphic.

From Doctor Claudius, A True Story by Crawford, F. Marion (Francis Marion)

He never varied from that inimitable blend of small and vast mindedness, of liberality and crabbedness, which was his personal note, and which defies our formulating power.

From Memories and Studies by James, Henry

A freedom, both from girlish frivolities, and old-maidish crabbedness and prudery. '6th.

From The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various