ill temper

noun

1. bad or irritable disposition.

ill temper

noun

1. bad temper; irritability

Other Word Forms

• ill-tempered adjective
• ill-temperedly adverb
• ill-temperedness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of ill temper¹

First recorded in 1595–1605

Example Sentences

The angrier, more powerful ghosts used the trolley to find new hosts: tired, unsuspecting bodies to possess for a little while, warmth to steal from cheeks and other exposed skin, and ill tempers to stoke.

From Literature

Such a choice almost certainly would have ended in death, either from starvation, exposure or from the ill temper of another grizzly.

From Washington Times

Brimming with regret and felled by his own ill temper, Springsteen’s narrator hits rock bottom — quite literally — with “Stones.”

From Salon

Eerily, they were given a precise phenotypic marker, a blemish above the left eyebrow, and were given, too, the ill temper associated with age.

From The New Yorker

Part of the ill temper was produced by the death of Bobby Kennedy only two and a half months earlier.

From The New Yorker

Related Words

• acrimony 
• animosity 
• annoyance 
• antagonism 
• displeasure 
• enmity 
• exasperation 
• fury 
• hatred 
• impatience 
• indignation 
• ire 
• irritation 
• outrage 
• passion 
• rage 
• resentment 
• temper 
• violence