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Sombre vs Cantankerous - What's the difference?

sombre | cantankerous | Related terms |

Sombre is a related term of cantankerous.


As a verb sombre

is .

As an adjective cantankerous is

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

sombre

English

Alternative forms

* (US ) somber

Adjective

(er)
  • Dark; gloomy.
  • Dull or dark in colour.
  • Melancholy; dismal.
  • * Beaconsfield
    • The dinner was silent and sombre ; happily it was also short.
  • Grave.
    • a sombre situation

    Synonyms

    * melancholy * dreary * dire * dismal

    Noun

    (-)
  • (obsolete) gloom; obscurity; duskiness

    • Verb

  • To make sombre or dark; to make shady.
    • (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    cantankerous

    English

    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.