cross-grained

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cross-grained
Adjective
  • Advertisement Johnson anticipates more challenges from his cantankerous colleagues.
    Eric Cortellessa, Time, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Smith plays Hanna, a cantankerous nonagenarian, who patrols the Golden Gate Bridge every day and intervenes when people get too close to the edge.
    Brent Lang, Variety, 6 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • Over the weekend, reports emerged that the higher tariffs followed a disagreeable Thursday phone call between Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter and Trump — which Swiss officials rejected, according to Reuters.
    Sophie Kiderlin,Jenni Reid, CNBC, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Trump and his supporters prefer a happy history, a pleasant history that arouses patriotism by overlooking disagreeable people and despicable events that sully the nation’s reputation and mar the magnificence of the American story.
    William C. Hine, Twin Cities, 23 July 2025
Adjective
  • Trying to Kill Each Other' And Walken is marvelous — querulous, petty, cruel — as the Emperor.
    Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 29 Feb. 2024
  • Instead, Gerwig and Baumbach promote querulous sloganeering.
    Armond White, National Review, 19 July 2023
Adjective
  • That continues when the matriarch finally passes away 20 years later, leaving equally bilious offspring Laras (Dinda Kanyadewi) in charge.
    Dennis Harvey, Variety, 6 Aug. 2025
  • Even though his bloodwork looked normal six months previously, sudden onset or acute renal failure can happen in an old dog for no apparent reason other than age and result in bilious vomiting.
    Dr. John De Jong, Boston Herald, 8 June 2025
Adjective
  • Their aggressive, ornery, and unpredictable nature has earned them the nickname Black Death.
    Kris Millgate, Outdoor Life, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Meanwhile, eighty-three-year-old Harrison Ford earned his first Emmy nod for his role as the ornery therapist on the show Shrinking.
    Taylor Wilson, USA Today, 16 July 2025
Adjective
  • Anna’s surly 15-year-old daughter Harper (Julia Butters) is vehemently opposed to the possibility of being uprooted and moved to London.
    David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 5 Aug. 2025
  • This is because, little under a year after being handed a landslide majority by the U.K. electorate, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is deeply unpopular and thrashing around for ways to appease a surly and resentful public.
    Ian King, CNBC, 11 June 2025
Adjective
  • Nothing adds depth to an irascible curmudgeon quite like an irrational love of pets that do not love you back.
    Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture, 6 Aug. 2025
  • Asked whether Skydance, which is in the process of buying Paramount Global, parent company of his network Comedy Central, would cancel the irascible talk show, Stewart essentially shrugged his shoulders.
    Peter White, Deadline, 17 July 2025
Adjective
  • While grunge seemed peevish, grim, defeatist, and dour—and extended the kind of us-vs.-them culture most famously centered by the indie rock of the ’80s and ’90s, Oasis was celebratory, communal, and democratic while exploring themes of alienation, escape, and fantasies of triumph.
    Corey Seymour, Vogue, 28 July 2025
  • Thousands of people — displaced by disaster, their past lives gone up in smoke — are hostage to the whims of a peevish president who always puts his feelings first and cares nothing for the greater good.
    Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 22 June 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Cross-grained.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cross-grained. Accessed 26 Aug. 2025.

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