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
Fitzgerald, 75, his daughter Heather Valdez, 53, and their team of family members, co-workers and an ornery parrot named Cisco have kept this wacky thrift-consignment-retail store afloat.
—
Amanda Rosa, Miami Herald, 14 Mar. 2025
The protagonist is an ornery, unemployed academic (Lee Sung-jae) who becomes fixated on a barking dog in his apartment complex, and goes to extreme lengths to silence it.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 7 Mar. 2025
Perhaps Hackman sensed this in his final years acting, as he was known to be more ornery with each passing entry in his canon.
—Harrison Richlin, IndieWire, 1 Mar. 2025
This is a ghost story of sorts, written in cycles and loops, loafers and suits, ornery protest and wired-to-the-skies dance weekends.
—Ian Penman, Harper's Magazine, 19 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ornery
Amanda Rosa, Miami Herald, 14 Mar. 2025
The protagonist is an ornery, unemployed academic (Lee Sung-jae) who becomes fixated on a barking dog in his apartment complex, and goes to extreme lengths to silence it.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 7 Mar. 2025
Perhaps Hackman sensed this in his final years acting, as he was known to be more ornery with each passing entry in his canon.
—Harrison Richlin, IndieWire, 1 Mar. 2025
This is a ghost story of sorts, written in cycles and loops, loafers and suits, ornery protest and wired-to-the-skies dance weekends.
—Ian Penman, Harper's Magazine, 19 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ornery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ornery
Adjective
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Cass fulfills his obligations in a particularly irritable way.—
Jesse Hassenger,
Vulture,
30 Apr. 2025
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One person’s fatigue is another’s back pain, is another’s migraine or irritable bowel, or long Covid, and so on.—
Jessica DuLong,
CNN Money,
11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Major tennis governing bodies moved to combat online abuse and published last year a report that attributed nearly half of abusive social media posts to angry gamblers.—
Reuters,
CNN Money,
3 June 2025
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Testimony in a Placer County murder trial continued Tuesday with an investigator reciting angry emails over a $1.3 million loan for a fledgling business between a Lake Tahoe-area couple and their former Major League Baseball player son-in-law who is accused of shooting them.—
Rosalio Ahumada,
Sacbee.com,
3 June 2025
Adjective
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In time, Ian started laughing at other things too: stories Eve made up about a cantankerous Russian named Boris, the word debris, pots clanging, keys jangling.—
Sarah Zhang,
The Atlantic,
16 May 2025
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Oldman’s performance in the show has been widely praised and he’s earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for playing the cantankerous head of Slough House, Jackson Lamb.—
Keith Langston,
People.com,
23 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Commerce City police helped return a surly rattlesnake to the wild this month after a resident found the venomous reptile coiled in their home’s driveway.—
Max Levy,
Denver Post,
31 May 2025
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The third reason to slip the surly bonds of Earth is that our air is extremely good at shielding us from many wavelengths of light our eyes cannot see.—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
29 May 2025
Adjective
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Befriending Cressida Cowper is a respectable exercise in recognizing biases, but the pair’s interactions are as disagreeable as those bangs.—
Zoe Haylock,
Vulture,
16 May 2024
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If Alex has a bit more credibility, not being as intractable in her positions, both have a tendency to come off as disagreeable in their incessant bickering and self-righteousness.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Under Nézet-Séguin, the musicians do the job spectacularly, releasing all those bilious harmonies and seething rhythms in an unbroken two-hour spasm of excitement.—
Justin Davidson,
Vulture,
30 Apr. 2025
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And Emily’s side of the family isn't much better, represented by her mean, bilious aunt (Allison Janney, herself no slouch in the hissing-authority department) and her boozy mother (Elizabeth Perkins, replacing Jean Smart from the first film).—
Tom Gliatto,
People.com,
30 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ornery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ornery. Accessed 12 Jun. 2025.
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