Adjective

she is a cantankerous old maid fretting and snarling over the loss of her beauty.

The great principle on which the privileges of cantankerous folly and ill-nature found is this: that as we go on through life we grow somewhat cowardly; and if a thing be disagreeable, we just keep out of its way: sometimes by rather shabby expedients.

I am being cantankerous'''. Some days I feel so '''cantankerous I could take a machine-gun into the streets and shoot down the whole population of Hendon Central; I don't know why.

By contrast, cantankerous and churlish people are contemptuously independent of others’ opinions, not caring enough about others and their views.

The cantankerous are those "marked by ill humor, irritability, and determination to disagree." Webster's New International Dictionary 328 (3d ed.1986).

All things being equal, a cantankerous person or a curmudgeon would be more secure by becoming more unpleasant.

Nina was thrilled, muttering her cantankerous joy that I was getting out of the house.

The cantankerous landlord always grumbled when asked to fix something.

Unfortunately, as Great-Aunt Bert could be a bit cantankerous , they were having to be creative