Adjective

(en adjective)

Easily provoked to outbursts of anger; irritable.

* 1809 , , Knickerbocker's History of New York , ch. 16:

. . . the surly and irascible passions which, like belligerent powers, lie encamped around the heart.

* 1863 , , Hospital Sketches , ch. 1:

I am naturally irascible , and if I could have shaken this negative gentleman vigorously, the relief would have been immense.

* 1921 , , Four Years , ch. 10:

. . . a never idle man of great physical strength and extremely irascible —did he not fling a badly baked plum pudding through the window upon Xmas Day?

* 2004 Feb. 29, Daniel Kadlec, " Why He's Meanspan," Time :

Alan Greenspan was on an irascible roll last week, first dissing everyone who holds a fixed-rate mortgage — suckers! — and later picking on folks who collect Social Security: Get back to work, Grandma.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Disappointingly inadequate.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport

, title= Liverpool 0-1 West Brom , passage=Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.}}

Gloomy and bleak.

Depressing.

*, chapter=12

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.}}