as in petulant
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Recent Examples of stroppy
She’s matched wonderfully by Cooke, who leans into her actual Manchester accent to give Cherry a stroppy, sarcastic bent and whose body looks absolutely banging wrapped in an array of oxblood, maroon, and cerise minidresses.
—
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2025
The team’s cohesion and ability to handle adversity are worlds apart from the stroppy exits that defined Mauricio Pochettino’s time managing a team of Galacticos.
—Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes.com, 29 May 2025
Yet the Brazilian proceeded to show how Pereira’s faith was misplaced, first with a stroppy performance at Chelsea that prompted his head coach to publicly criticise his body language and then with his second violent meltdown of the season, against Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez in the FA Cup.
—Steve Madeley, New York Times, 28 May 2025
Ramaswamy stole a page from Trump’s 2016 playbook, emerging as a stroppy candidate challenging the status quo of Washington.
—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2023
Madison makes for a peculiar heroine; her performance as a realistically stroppy adolescent, in possession of a weariness and cynicism far beyond her years, recalls Karen Kilgariff playing a child in an improv scene.
—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 7 Oct. 2022
But even if Brexit reflects Britain’s carefree pensioners—and some evidence suggests that despite being older, Brexit voters were stroppier than average—there is little sign of such an age effect elsewhere.
—The Economist, 11 July 2019
Indeed, a video on AS' website shows the marksman getting extremely stroppy when he is told to conduct some acceleration drills alone while his fellow players get on with another session.
—SI.com, 12 Oct. 2017
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2025
The team’s cohesion and ability to handle adversity are worlds apart from the stroppy exits that defined Mauricio Pochettino’s time managing a team of Galacticos.
—Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes.com, 29 May 2025
Yet the Brazilian proceeded to show how Pereira’s faith was misplaced, first with a stroppy performance at Chelsea that prompted his head coach to publicly criticise his body language and then with his second violent meltdown of the season, against Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez in the FA Cup.
—Steve Madeley, New York Times, 28 May 2025
Ramaswamy stole a page from Trump’s 2016 playbook, emerging as a stroppy candidate challenging the status quo of Washington.
—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2023
Madison makes for a peculiar heroine; her performance as a realistically stroppy adolescent, in possession of a weariness and cynicism far beyond her years, recalls Karen Kilgariff playing a child in an improv scene.
—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 7 Oct. 2022
But even if Brexit reflects Britain’s carefree pensioners—and some evidence suggests that despite being older, Brexit voters were stroppier than average—there is little sign of such an age effect elsewhere.
—The Economist, 11 July 2019
Indeed, a video on AS' website shows the marksman getting extremely stroppy when he is told to conduct some acceleration drills alone while his fellow players get on with another session.
—SI.com, 12 Oct. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stroppy
Adjective
-
The petulant, back-stabby intrigue between various parties here sometimes makes the hero rather unsympathetic, with photogenic singer-actor Pena Hernandez’s puppyish turn not conveying a great deal of complexity, let alone artistic o intellectual potential.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
31 Oct. 2025
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Tom Hulce portrayed the musical prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a petulant, bratty young genius with a distinctive laugh, insatiable appetite and endless talent.—
Katie Walsh,
Twin Cities,
22 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Most cases clear up on their own without complications, but parents should contact a doctor if a child cannot keep fluids down, has a high fever lasting more than a few days or seems unusually drowsy or irritable.—
Katia Hetter,
CNN Money,
29 Oct. 2025
-
Also known as irritable hip, the condition is due to inflammation of the hip joint lining.—
Emily Blackwood,
PEOPLE,
26 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
And Carol is really taking to the task, grumpy throughout the two-minute trailer, while the world tries and fails to turn her frown upside down.—
Rosy Cordero,
Deadline,
22 Oct. 2025
-
But, wishes aside, Patterson was cast as Danes, the grumpy but kindhearted diner owner at the heart of the show’s romance between his character and Lauren Graham’s Lorelai Gilmore.—
Meredith Wilshere,
PEOPLE,
18 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The irascible Cox has spent years prodding Day-Lewis in interviews over his acting techniques, largely as a way of explaining his irritation with Succession co-star (and Day-Lewis’s fellow Method actor) Jeremy Strong.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
3 Nov. 2025
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Now in its fifth season, the Apple TV drama follows a gang of screw-up spies who are nobody’s idea of the Avengers, led by Gary Oldman’s irascible, flatulent Jackson Lamb.—
Alison Herman,
Variety,
29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Townsend will play Norm Stinson, an excellent (and grouchy) veteran basketball coach who knows how to get the best out of his teams, but not always how to communicate.—
Denise Petski,
Deadline,
25 Sep. 2025
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Leading up to kickoff of Belichick’s debut at Chapel Hill, college football, this community and certainly the TV networks were thrilled with the prospect of this grouchy old man turning an irrelevant football team into something worth watching.—
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
2 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Instead, Helen is allowed to be irritable and anti-social, chain-smoking and snappish, without the filmmaker casting judgment.—
Peter Debruge,
Variety,
2 Sep. 2025
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Harriette Cole: My twins are getting snappish over college acceptance Asking Eric: A cemetery guard ruined my father’s funeral, and that was just the start This includes stating your belief that your explanations may not be believed.—
Judith Martin,
Mercury News,
7 May 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
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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
Adjective
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The tale she’s lived to tell emerges, for all its crotchety complaints, from a place of unerring loyalty.—
Mark Leibovich,
The Atlantic,
8 Oct. 2025
-
As the Platinum Chalice status holder, Adomian adopts an old man’s slow gait and crotchety American geriatric voice to yet another ovation.—
John Roy,
Vulture,
8 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Stroppy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stroppy. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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