CANTANKEROUS

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cantankerous mean? 

• CANTANKEROUS (adjective)
  The adjective CANTANKEROUS has 2 senses:

1. stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate

2. having a difficult and contrary disposition

  Familiarity information: CANTANKEROUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CANTANKEROUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate

Synonyms:

bloody-minded; cantankerous

Context example:

unions...have never been as bloody-minded about demarcation as the shipbuilders

Similar:

obstinate; stubborn; unregenerate (tenaciously unwilling or marked by tenacious unwillingness to yield)

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having a difficult and contrary disposition

Synonyms:

cantankerous; crotchety; ornery

Context example:

a cantankerous and venomous-tongued old lady

Similar:

ill-natured (having an irritable and unpleasant disposition)

 Context examples 

As a Pressman, I felt sure from what I had been told that I could never hope to get into touch with this cantankerous Professor.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Indeed, they are children both—the one wizened and cantankerous, the other formidable and overbearing, yet each with a brain which has put him in the front rank of his scientific age.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He is a violent, dangerous, cantankerous character, hated by everyone who comes across him, and the butt of the students, so far as they dare take a liberty with him.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)