ill-tempered
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
- ill-temperedly adverb
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.
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
For starters, this contest has been – to put it mildly – ill-tempered.
From BBC • Sep. 26, 2024
Preston North End finished triumphant over Leeds United in a dramatic but ill-tempered Boxing Day tussle.
From BBC • Dec. 26, 2023
See Donald and Daffy, ill-tempered anthropomorphic animals who aren’t afraid of making a display of their displeasure.
From New York Times • Dec. 21, 2023
“Lord Fredrick pays scarcely any attention to her at all. Perhaps that is why she is so ill-tempered so much of the time.”
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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.
