as in cantankerous
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for cross-grained
Adjective
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Gertrude watched her brother alienate his friends, sapped of mental energy, and increasingly cantankerous.—
Via Scribner,
Literary Hub,
7 Oct. 2025 -
Getty portrayed the cantankerous but charming matriarch Sophia Petrillo, the mother of Arthur's character, and McClanahan played the flirtatious Southern belle Blanche.—
Ashley Hume , Stephanie Nolasco,
FOXNews.com,
14 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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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
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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
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Trying to Kill Each Other' And Walken is marvelous — querulous, petty, cruel — as the Emperor.—
Tom Gliatto,
Peoplemag,
29 Feb. 2024
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Instead, Gerwig and Baumbach promote querulous sloganeering.—
Armond White,
National Review,
19 July 2023
Adjective
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Sun shrinking and getting hotter; everything bilious, oxygenless, not great for living.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
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Minaj’s bilious flurry is possibly related to claims that she is owed between $100 to 200 million related to her stake in Tidal, the music streaming service launched and spearheaded by Jay-Z in 2015 and was sold to Jack Dorsey’s company Square for $297 million in 2021.—
Andrew Flanagan,
Variety,
15 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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But Kael sensed in her less dyspeptic moments that there was something special about Redford.—
Stephen Galloway,
HollywoodReporter,
18 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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With its abundance of concrete, startling interior views, and play of deep shadows, the design invokes the ornery inventiveness of Kahn and Paul Rudolph, combined with the corporate sleekness of MoMA’s most recent iterations by Yoshio Taniguchi and Diller Scofidio + Renfro.—
Justin Davidson,
Curbed,
3 Nov. 2025
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At 0-2, the Chiefs may be a little more ornery than usual.—
Andrew Greif,
NBC news,
22 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Everyone is welcoming and warm—other than a free-roaming ostrich, curious and slightly surly, which keeps skittish guard over the entire site.—
Mark Ellwood,
Robb Report,
21 Dec. 2025
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Remember how in 2023 when swarms of these surly, entitled freeloaders suddenly materialized – in Terminal E, of all places.—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
28 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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As a ballplayer, Kent was as irascible as Bonds; the two alphas reportedly brawled behind clubhouse doors, and famously clashed in the dugout during a 2002 game, when Bonds lunged for Kent’s throat and pushed him against the wall.—
Jeremy Collins,
The Atlantic,
12 Dec. 2025
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Nothing adds depth to an irascible curmudgeon quite like an irrational love of pets that do not love you back.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
3 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Cross-grained.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cross-grained. Accessed 9 Jan. 2026.
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