as in irritable
having or showing a habitually bad temper
an ornery old man who always yells at the neighborhood kids to keep off his lawn
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Recent Examples of ornery
But Duvall rose to prominence the next decade, first as the ornery Major Frank Burns in the 1970 antiwar comedy M*A*S*H, reuniting with Robert Altman, who’d previously cast him in 1967’s Countdown.
—
Tim Grierson, Rolling Stone, 16 Feb. 2026
Sometimes he’d be sent out to deal with the more ornery guests in an effort to calm them.
—Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2026
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
At 0-2, the Chiefs may be a little more ornery than usual.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 22 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ornery
Tim Grierson, Rolling Stone, 16 Feb. 2026
Sometimes he’d be sent out to deal with the more ornery guests in an effort to calm them.
—Stephanie Breijo, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2026
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
At 0-2, the Chiefs may be a little more ornery than usual.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 22 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ornery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ornery
Adjective
-
But Maguire, now 43, became sad and irritable, and didn’t want to be around his newborn.—
Keith Wagstaff,
Los Angeles Times,
10 June 2026
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Additionally, Owens' youngest child, Titus, who was just a toddler when his mother died, was confused, irritable and inconsolable in the weeks after her death, Dias shared.—
Lynsey Eidell,
PEOPLE,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
Linda Hyde, a Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards member since 2014, boarded her Southwest flight on May 21 at Miami International Airport humiliated and angry.—
Ella Moore
Updated May 29,
Miami Herald,
29 May 2026
-
Elder’s sculpture was sitting outside of Bee Hive KC over Memorial Day Weekend when a man who was visibly angry allegedly began vandalizing the honeybee, according to Elder.—
Jenna Ebbers,
Kansas City Star,
29 May 2026
Adjective
-
The cantankerous Jackson Lamb is back in a first look at season six of Slow Horses.—
Lily Ford,
HollywoodReporter,
11 June 2026
-
The cantankerous Croatian lasted until November.—
James Horncastle,
New York Times,
2 June 2026
Adjective
-
Our protagonist, the surly and depressed writer Ohm, has been stuck on the ending to his book series featuring a conquistador lost in the desert with a young companion and a map trapped inside a bottle.—
Katie Walsh,
Twin Cities,
2 May 2026
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Our protagonist, the surly and depressed writer Ohm, has been stuck on the ending to his book series featuring a conquistador lost in the desert with a young companion and a map trapped inside a bottle.—
Katie Walsh,
Boston Herald,
1 May 2026
Adjective
-
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
-
The disagreeable object proved no match for the most fertile person in Montana.—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
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This is because there is a meaningful difference between disagreeing and being disagreeable.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes.com,
7 Apr. 2026
Adjective
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Better is Danny Elfman’s spartan and fraught score, particularly the dyspeptic drums.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Jan. 2026
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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
Cite this Entry
“Ornery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ornery. Accessed 12 Jun. 2026.
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