ornery
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About Our Definitions: All forms of a word (noun, verb, etc.) are now displayed on one page.or·nery
adjective \ˈȯr-nə-rē, ˈär-; ˈȯrn-rē, ˈärn-\or·neri·eror·neri·est
Definition of ORNERY
: having an irritable disposition : cantankerous
— or·neri·ness noun
See Examples of ORNERY
- I'm getting more and more ornery in my old age.
- <an ornery old man who always yells at the neighborhood kids to keep off his lawn>
- Based on the best-selling book by Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit tells the true story of an ornery, undersize, beaten-up Thoroughbred who becomes a champion in the 1930s. —Lev Grossman, Time, 21 July 2003
- Critics have compared his work to Faulkner's. And like Faulkner, McCarthy is an acquired taste as well as a palate cleanser. He's a stubborn, ornery writer, known for his ornate sentences, arcane vocabulary, casual disregard for standard punctuation and untranslated bits of foreign dialogue that offer little in the way of a narrative compass to guide readers along. —Sara Mosle, New York Times Book Review, 17 May 1998
- Telling her that would have been an invitation to getting my head chopped off, because she was a mean, ornery number until the day she died. —John Gregory Dunne, Harp, 1989
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Origin of ORNERY
alteration of ordinary
First Known Use: 1816
Related to ORNERY
- Synonyms
- acid, bearish, bilious, bloody-minded [chiefly British], cantankerous, disagreeable, dyspeptic, ill-humored, ill-natured, ill–tempered, splenetic, surly
- Antonyms
- amiable, good-humored, good-natured, good-tempered
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