curmudgeon
- a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person.
Origin of curmudgeon
Synonyms for curmudgeon
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words for curmudgeon
curmudgeon, sorehead, grump, crank, crab, killjoy, growler, whiner, crosspatch, faultfinder, grouch, misanthrope, complainer, sourpuss, bear, malcontent, kicker, bug, griper, sulkerExamples from the Web for curmudgeon
Contemporary Examples of curmudgeon
Chris Messina did such great work this year making a curmudgeon charming on The Mindy Project.
In person, Messina is a bit like Danny, minus the curmudgeon qualities.
I don't think he is a curmudgeon, I think he just likes challenging climatic conditions.
By the time of my last visit, about a year ago, Maurice had become almost as famous for being a curmudgeon as he was as an artist.
Historical Examples of curmudgeon
Any scruples that he ever had on that score he had removed for himself by realizing that she was a curmudgeon.
Tristram of BlentAnthony Hope
Degas is amiability itself compared with this curmudgeon of genius.
UnicornsJames Huneker
Not so bold, however, as the badger and not so much of a curmudgeon.
The Land of Little RainMary Austin
And I marvelled at their intimacy, and wondered what that curmudgeon of a husband had to say to it!
Witching HillE. W. Hornung
I knowed the curmudgeon's voice, and I expect he knowed my hand, for he has felt it before.
Horse-Shoe RobinsonJohn Pendleton Kennedy
curmudgeon
- a surly or miserly person
Word Origin for curmudgeon
Word Origin and History for curmudgeon
1570s, of unknown origin; the suggestion, based on a misreading of a garbled note from Johnson, that it is from French coeur mechant "evil heart" is not taken seriously; the first syllable may be cur "dog." Liberman says the word "must have been borrowed from Gaelic (and references muigean "disagreeable person"), with variant spelling of intensive prefix ker-. Related: Curmudgeonly.