grouchy
1 Americanadjective
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
- grouchily adverb
- grouchiness noun
Etymology
Origin of grouchy
Explanation
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."
Vocabulary lists containing grouchy
Irritable, List 2
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Irritable, List 2
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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.
More forms and records gathered sooner means fewer terse emails from your grouchy accountant — and less time waiting for your refund.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 17, 2026
Pamela, as Travers was known around the Disney studio, was grouchy before she granted the rights and grouchy afterwards.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025
Matt Roush adds, “Subtlety rarely wins awards, but I’d like to see Harrison Ford’s masterful underplaying as ‘Shrinking’s’ grouchy shrink prove me wrong.”
From Los Angeles Times • May 23, 2025
Some of you must have been feeling a bit grouchy.
From Seattle Times • May 11, 2024
We were in the first group, along with Mrs. Arvydas, the grouchy woman, and her daughters.
From "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys
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.
