currish
Americanadjective
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of or relating to a cur.
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curlike; snarling; quarrelsome.
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contemptible; base.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- currishly adverb
- currishness noun
Etymology
Origin of currish
First recorded in 1425–75, currish is from the late Middle English word kuresshe. See cur, -ish 1
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.
"Of a dog; currish," is the definition which we get from Johnson,—quite correctly, and in accordance with its etymology.
From Thackeray by Trollope, Anthony
O people currish, churlish as their seas— He rejoices he leaves them, never to return till “rocks shall turn to rivers.”
From Calamities and Quarrels of Authors by Disraeli, Isaac
The last sort of dogs consisteth of the currish kind meet for many toys, of which the whappet or prick-eared cur is one.
From Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) by Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed
As one well-fed dog is sure to be snarlish to a poorer brother—poor human nature—this currish principle is but too true when applied to us.
From The Kentuckian in New-York, Volume I (of 2) or, The Adventures of Three Southerns by Caruthers, William Alexander
In a moment I was beside her, riding bare-back, with Maisie clasping my waist, as indeed we had often ridden before—though never so perilously, nor yet with such a currish retinue yowling at our tail.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by Crockett, S. R. (Samuel Rutherford)
Definitions 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.
