Adjective

(en adjective)

(archaic) Disobedient, contrary, unmanageable; difficult to deal with; with an evil disposition.

* 1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew :

Her onely fault, and that is faults enough, / Is, that she is intollerable curst, / And shrow'd, and froward , so beyond all measure, / That were my state farre worser then it is, / I would not wed her for a mine of Gold.

* 1826 , George Crabb

A froward child becomes an untoward youth, who turns a deaf ear to all the admonitions of an afflicted parent.

* {{quote-book

, year=2007 , year_published= , edition= , editor= , author=Peter Marshall , title=Mother Leakey and the Bishop: A Ghost Story , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=Oxford Univ. Press , isbn=9780199273713 , page= , passage=… which so incensed this old hag that she grew as froward and sullen as the doctor, … }}

* {{quote-web

, date= , year=c2009 , first= , last= , author=Mary Sidney , authorlink= , title=Froward Women , site=Mary Sidney citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2012-08-31 , passage=However, it does make one wonder — if William Shakespeare were the creator of all these froward , literate, and often powerful women, why did he let his own daughters grow up illiterate? }}

* {{quote-web

, date=2012-06-09 , year= , first= , last= , author=Christine , authorlink= , title=Forward or Froward , site=Talk Wisdom citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2012-08-31 , passage=… the Communist/Marxist/Progressive/Globalist meaning of the term "Forward" can more accurately be labeled as Froward'. … campaign slogan choice would better resemble the term "' Froward " rather than the term "Forward." }}

Adjective

(en adjective)

given to or marked by an ill-tempered nature, ill-tempered, cranky, surly, crabby.

* 1839 , Fraser's magazine for town and country, Volume 20, p618

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

* 1866 Every Saturday, Volume 2, p355

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.

* 1947 , John Courtenay Trewin, Plays of the year: Volume 47, 195

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.

* 1998 , Pauline Chazan, The moral self, 80

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

* 2004 , 386 F. 3d 192 - Jacques v. Dimarzio Inc

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

* 2004 , 386 F. 3d 192 - Jacques v. Dimarzio Inc

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

* 2007 , Linda Francis Lee, The Devil in the Junior League, p44

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

* from where is this quotation?

The cantankerous landlord always grumbled when asked to fix something.

* 2010 ,

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

Note: Cantankerous is generally used to describe an unpleasant elderly person in a slightly pejorative manner. However, the term can be used to people in general, livestock, and machinery as well.