ornery

adjective

or·​nery ˈȯr-nə-rē 

ˈär-;

ˈȯrn-rē,

ˈärn-,

ˈȯn-,

ˈän-

ornerier; orneriest

1

a

: having an irritable disposition : cantankerous

He's been labeled … as ornery on the course and surly in the clubhouse.

—Roy Bragg

b

: difficult to deal with or control

an ornery mule

an ornery patient

All that stands in the way is a stable of ornery bulls and the luck of the draw.

—Dave Kallmann

… a bout with walking pneumonia and an ornery case of poison oak.

—Paul Francis

2

chiefly Midwestern US : having or showing a playful tendency to cause trouble : mischievous

an ornery smile

It had been fun to play a trick on those ornery boys. They were not bad boys: just wild things full of vim and vinegar who were trying to fill their time and show off.

—Connie Leonard Geron

… invited me to come take pictures at a little family tradition they have … A shaving cream war. They have a large family; so there were tons of kids of all ages there. I think what I loved most about this was the fact that the adults got just as ornery as the kids.

—Rebecca Haines

orneriness noun

Did you know?

What's the history of ornery?

Readers who are familiar with one of the more common senses of ornery ("irritable") might well be surprised to learn that the word is an alteration of the word ordinary, as this root word has little to do with feelings of peevishness. Yet this is the case, and there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for how this meaning came about.

Ornery was first used in American regional speech in the beginning of the 19th century as a simple variant of ordinary, and for some while it had the same meaning. Soon enough, however, it began to take on some of the more negative aspects of ordinary. It was used to describe things that were common, and especially common things of inferior quality. Next, it developed a sense synonymous with lazy. Those lazy folks dubbed "ornery" were also apparently easily annoyed and touchy. By the end of the 19th century ornery had taken on its now-common meaning of "cantankerous."

Synonyms of ornery

• irritable
• angry
• cantankerous
• surly
• bilious
• disagreeable
• dyspeptic

Examples of ornery in a Sentence

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

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

Recent Examples on the Web

At 0-2, the Chiefs may be a little more ornery than usual. —Andrew Greif, NBC news, 22 Sep. 2025

The goal is to capitalize on the holidays when kids will be out of school and eager to see some ornery avians. —Brent Lang, Variety, 18 Sep. 2025

That ornery cleric was Moqtada al-Sadr, the son of Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, a grand ayatollah assassinated almost certainly by Saddam’s order in 1999. —Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2 Sep. 2025

Their aggressive, ornery, and unpredictable nature has earned them the nickname Black Death. —Kris Millgate, Outdoor Life, 7 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

alteration of ordinary

First Known Use

1849, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

ornery

adjective

or·​nery ˈȯrn-(ə-)rē 

ˈärn-

ornerier; orneriest

: having an irritable disposition

orneriness noun