Are you feeling cranky or irritable and complaining about every little thing that annoys you? You're grouchy. Someone who's grouchy is easily irritated, like the grouchy bus driver who yells for everyone to sit down and be quiet, or your grouchy brother, who grumbles about what's being served for dinner — or the notoriously grouchy Oscar the Grouch from "Sesame Street." Grouchy was college slang in the late 1800s, along with expressions like "to have a grouch on." The root might be grutch, "to complain or find fault with."
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In the A.I. age, Maggie Hennessy asserts, sparring with a grouchy maître d’ over the phone is part of what makes dining out great.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
On top of that, employer-review sites generally showed the biggest negative effects on weekends, leading the researchers to speculate that people thinking about work on the weekend would be grouchy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Here’s how that relates to my tax refund: I love the windfall, but my inner grouchy accountant knows it’s just my money returning with 0% APY.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 17, 2026
That Utah rideshare driver, however, was justifiable more grouchy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
"What?" he said in his usual grouchy tone.
From "When I Was the Greatest" by Jason Reynolds
If you’re grouchy about it, I’m with you on Grouchy Island.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Grouchy and gracious — you all matter to me.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 21, 2022
"Grouchy old guy with the heart of gold," is not a particularly daunting role, but somehow Jones missed the mark.
From Golf Digest ● Mar. 29, 2018
Grouchy got his name as he used to have a dog with the same moniker.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 5, 2016
Grouchy failed to appear; the imperial guard was beaten back; Waterloo was lost.
From Recitations for the Social Circle by Harvey, James Clarence
Some surveys showed that mentioning it made voters grouchier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2023
Part of me was delighted by the intimacy and naturalness of these revelations, but a grouchier part was kind of like, “Hey, did I ask for your whole life story?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2019
But when the Democratic Party's leading presidential hopeful visits Florida this week, he's likely to hear a grouchier refrain, something along the lines of, "It's about time!"
From Time Magazine Archive
Anderson gets even grouchier when dealing with his fellow critics, who have been "emotional collaborators" in all this madness.
From Time Magazine Archive
He gave the boy’s aunt more paperwork to fill out and gestured for her to sit in the waiting room, which only made her grouchier yet.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
A little natural vitamin D can bring a sunny disposition to even the grouchiest of curmudgeons.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 20, 2021
This season can make even the grouchiest New Yorker an urban romantic, and encourages local residents and visitors alike to rediscover the museums and monuments we sometimes take for granted.
From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2019
Or perhaps Han bought the galaxy’s grouchiest food-preparation droid, who turned out to have glitchy programming anyway.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 5, 2016
Director Matsumoto, a reigning comic on Japanese TV, manages a balance of farce and impending tragedy that would win the approval of the grouchiest child.
From Time ● Jul. 6, 2012
I would equip myself to be able to entertain the grouchiest, most blasé people.
From 21 by Crane, Frank
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.
