cross as a bear
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Grumpy, ill-humored, annoyed, as in Stay away from Claire; she's cross as a bear this morning. Unlike the earlier cross as two stocks, this survives even though the adjective cross for “ill-tempered” is otherwise not used much in America. It is sometimes amplified as cross as a bear with a sore head. [Early 1700s]
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On the farm, the feed for chicks is significantly different from the roosters’; ______ not even comparable.
Words nearby cross as a bear
cross, cross a bridge when one comes to it, cross-action, cross-addicted, crossandra, cross as a bear, cross assembler, crossband, crossbar, crossbeam, cross-bearer
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.