Word Meanings - CANTANKEROUS - Book Publishers vocabulary database

Perverse; contentious; ugly; malicious. -- Can*tan"ker*ous*ly, adv. -- Can*tan"ker*ous*ness, n. The cantankerous old maiden aunt. Theckeray.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of CANTANKEROUS)

• Cross-grained
• Perverse
• wayward
• peevish
• morose
• cantankerous
• ill-conditioned
• Disputatious
• Litigious
• argumentative
• quarrelsome
• querulous

Related words: (words related to CANTANKEROUS)

• MOROSE
  particular way or habit, fr. mos, moris, manner, habit, way of life: 1. Of a sour temper; sullen and austere; ill-humored; severe. "A morose and affected taciturnity." I. Watts. 2. Lascivious; brooding over evil thoughts. Syn. -- Sullen; gruff;
• MOROSENESS
  Sourness of temper; sulenness. Learn good humor, never to oppose without just reason; abate some degrees of pride and moroseness. I. Watts. Note: Moroseness is not precisely peevishness or fretfulness, though often accompained with it. It denotes
• CANTANKEROUS
  Perverse; contentious; ugly; malicious. -- Can*tan"ker*ous*ly, adv. -- Can*tan"ker*ous*ness, n. The cantankerous old maiden aunt. Theckeray.
• PEEVISH
  1. Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant. "Her peevish babe." Wordsworth. She is peevish, sullen, froward. Shak. 2. Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction;
• MOROSELY
  Sourly; with sullen austerity.
• DISPUTATIOUS
  Inclined to dispute; apt to civil or controvert; characterized by dispute; as, a disputatious person or temper. The Christian doctrine of a future life was no recommendation of the new religion to the wits and philosophers of that disputations
• LITIGIOUSLY
  In a litigious manner.
• PERVERSENESS
  The quality or state of being perverse. "Virtue hath some perverseness." Donne.
• PEEVISHLY
  In a peevish manner. Shak.
• ARGUMENTATIVE
  1. Consisting of, or characterized by, argument; containing a process of reasoning; as, an argumentative discourse. 2. Adductive as proof; indicative; as, the adaptation of things to their uses is argumentative of infinite wisdom in the Creator.
• PEEVISHNESS
  The quality of being peevish; disposition to murmur; sourness of temper. Syn. -- See Petulance.
• WAYWARD
  Taking one's own way; disobedient; froward; perverse; willful. My wife is in a wayward mood. Shak. Wayward beauty doth not fancy move. Fairfax. Wilt thou forgive the wayward thought Keble. -- Way"ward*ly, adv. -- Way"ward*ness, n.
• PERVERSED
  Turned aside.
• QUARRELSOME
  Apt or disposed to quarrel; given to brawls and contention; easily irritated or provoked to contest; irascible; choleric. Syn. -- Pugnacious; irritable; irascible; brawling; choleric; fiery; petulant. -- Quar"rel*some*ly, adv. -- Quar"rel*some*ness,
• LITIGIOUS
  1. Inclined to judicial contest; given to the practice of contending in law; guarrelsome; contentious; fond of litigation. " A pettifogging attorney or a litigious client." Macaulay. Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men,
• QUERULOUS
  1. Given to quarreling; quarrelsome. land. 2. Apt to find fault; habitually complaining; disposed to murmur; as, a querulous man or people. Enmity can hardly be more annoying that querulous, jealous, exacting fondness. Macaulay. 3. Expressing
• PERVERSEDLY
  Perversely.
• PERVERSELY
  In a perverse manner.
• LITIGIOUSNESS
  The state of being litigious; disposition to engage in or carry on lawsuits.
• PERVERSE
  p.p. of pervertereto turn around, to overturn: cf. F. pervers. See 1. Turned aside; hence, specifically, turned away from the right; willfully erring; wicked; perverted. The only righteous in a word perverse. Milton. 2. Obstinate in the wrong;
• AWAYWARD
  Turned away; away. Chaucer.