crabbed
Americanadjective
-
grouchy; ill-natured; irritable; churlish.
- Synonyms:
- cantankerous, peevish, cross
-
hard to understand; intricate and obscure.
-
difficult to read or decipher, as handwriting.
adjective
-
surly; irritable; perverse
-
(esp of handwriting) cramped and hard to decipher
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of crabbed
Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at crab 3, -ed 3
Explanation
If your friend fell out of bed, spilled hot tea on his socks, and tripped in the snow, you might expect him to be crabbed. Crabbed describes someone who is grumpy, or irritable, or has a generally crotchety attitude. The word crabbed originally meant “resembling a crab” and also takes part of its meaning from the sour-tasting crab apple. You can think of crabbed as describing what someone would be like if they were made into a crab. The word is used less often than its synonym crabby, but the meaning of crabbed is just as easy to understand: if you were covered in sand all day, you’d probably feel crabbed too!
Vocabulary lists containing crabbed
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Selected Short Stories of Flannery O'Connor
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The Secret Garden
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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.
This is a crabbed and mendacious interpretation of the law.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 5, 2024
She also shaved her head — all to add authenticity as her queen evolved from youth to crabbed old age.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2023
But it is quite another for the judiciary to apply that same crabbed conception to speech beyond the school setting.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 30, 2021
Limbaugh might have had a choice at one point, a choice to stop being a crabbed, reactionary loudmouth and do something different.
From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2020
I tried to remain inconspicuous in the newsroom, but one of the typesetters, a crabbed, chain-smoking woman who always wore a hairnet, took a dislike to me.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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.
