ill-tempered
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
If your mom is ill-tempered, she's cranky, or in a really bad mood. It's probably smarter to ask your cheerful grandma for a ride to school, instead of your ill-tempered mom. Whenever you find yourself in an irritable, grouchy mood, you're ill-tempered. A really good kindergarten teacher will save his ill-tempered remarks for when he goes home after school, and an ill-tempered high school volleyball coach may end up with players quitting the team. Everyone's ill-tempered from time to time — the word combines ill, "bad," and tempered, from temper, or "mood," from the Latin root temperare, "be moderate."
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.
Ruskin’s ill-tempered insistence that drawing is an exercise of virtue was alien to Church’s character, but the same conjunction of extreme naturalism and a sort of vague pantheism is always present.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
The two sides meet at a sold-out Stade Chaban-Delmas in a re-run of last year's ill-tempered Champions Cup final.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026
In the Dodgers’ World Series run last season, Treinen was as vicious as an ill-tempered Doberman, going 2-0 with three saves, a 2.19 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2025
The chancellor and shadow chancellor will face off in the Commons later for the first time since that ill-tempered exchange.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2024
The expression was haughty and severe, like that of an ill-tempered old man who has complaining on his mind.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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.
