ill-tempered

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ill-tem·pered

(ĭl′tĕm′pərd)

adj.

Having a bad temper; irritable.

ill′-tem′pered·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ill-tempered

adj

showing bad temper; irritable

ˌill-ˈtemperedly adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ill′-tem′pered

adj.

irritable; cranky; disagreeable.

[1600–05]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.

ill-tempered - annoyed and irritable

bad-tempered, crabbed, crabby, fussy, grouchy, grumpy, cross

ill-natured - having an irritable and unpleasant disposition

ill-tempered

adjective cross, irritable, grumpy, irascible, sharp, annoyed, impatient, touchy, bad-tempered, curt, spiteful, tetchy, ratty (Brit. & N.Z. informal), testy, chippy (informal), choleric, ill-humoured, liverish He sounded like an ill-tempered child.
cheerful, benign, good-natured, patient, pleasant, sweet-tempered, mild-mannered

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

ill-tempered

adjective

Having or showing a bad temper:

bad-tempered, cantankerous, crabbed, cranky, cross, disagreeable, fretful, grouchy, grumpy, irascible, irritable, nasty, peevish, petulant, querulous, snappish, snappy, surly, testy, ugly, waspish.

Informal: crabby, mean.

Idiom: out of sorts.

Translations

ill-tempered

[ˈɪlˈtempəd] ADJ [person] → de mal genio; [remark, tone etc] → malhumorado

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

ill-tempered

a. de mal carácter, de mal genio.

English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

References in classic literature ?

Just then a horse's head looked over from the stall beyond; the ears were laid back, and the eye looked rather ill-tempered. This was a tall chestnut mare, with a long handsome neck.

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She wrote at great length the same day; cried profusely over her own epistolary composition; and was remarkably ill-tempered and snappish toward me, when we met in the evening.

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He was gruff, vulgar, ill-tempered; the chief ought to be kicked for letting her go near him!

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The King now understood how the Queen he had had for some time past had been so ill-tempered. He at once had a sack drawn over her head and made her be stoned to death, and after that torn in pieces by untamed horses.

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As for him, for the first week or two, he was peevish and low, fretting, I suppose, over his dear Annabella's departure, and particularly ill-tempered to me: everything I did was wrong; I was cold-hearted, hard, insensate; my sour, pale face was perfectly repulsive; my voice made him shudder; he knew not how he could live through the winter with me; I should kill him by inches.

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She was no more used to considering other people than Colin was and she saw no reason why an ill-tempered boy should interfere with the thing she liked best.

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Foka, the butler, was the most ill-tempered person in the house.

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Kitty glanced at her sister, and the cold, rather ill-tempered expression of her face did not change.

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When you were all trotting back again, under your umbrellas, did you (in particular) notice an ill-tempered fellow standing in the road, and getting a good look at you, on the high footpath above him?"

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If you would but consider your own unattractive exterior, your unamiable reserve, your foolish diffidence--which must make you appear cold, dull, awkward, and perhaps ill-tempered too;--if you had but rightly considered these from the beginning, you would never have harboured such presumptuous thoughts: and now that you have been so foolish, pray repent and amend, and let us have no more of it!'

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And Squirts, the master of the Middle Third, grew more ill-tempered every day.

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I eagerly turned the photograph, expecting to see a woman with a stern, ill-tempered, forbidding countenance.