ill-natured
AdjectiveOpen English WordNet
Adjective (1)
- having an irritable and unpleasant dispositionOpposite good-naturedSimilar dark, cantankerous, shrewish, cranky, crabbed, spoiled, huffish, bristly +12 moreRelates to natureSee also unpleasant
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
1. Of habitual bad temper; having an unpleasant disposition; surly; disagreeable; cross; peevish; fractious; crabbed; — of people; as, an ill-natured person; an ill-natured disagreeable old man. Opposite of good-natured. [Narrower terms: argumentative, contentious, disputatious, disputative, litigious : atrabilious, bilious, dyspeptic, liverish : bristly, prickly, snappish, splenetic, waspish : cantankerous, crotchety, ornery : choleric, irascible, hotheaded, hot-headed, hot-tempered, quick-tempered, short-tempered : crabbed, crabby, cross, fussy, fussbudgety, grouchy, grumpy, bad-tempered, ill-tempered: cranky, fractious, irritable, peevish, peckish, pettish, petulant, testy, tetchy, techy : crusty, curmudgeonly, gruff, ill-humored, ill-humoured: dour, glowering, glum, moody, morose, saturnine, sour, sullen : feisty, touchy : huffish, sulky: misanthropic, misanthropical : misogynous : shirty, snorty ill-tempered or annoyed): shrewish, nagging, vixenish : surly, ugly ] Also See: unpleasant. [ + ]
2. Dictated by, or indicating, ill nature; spiteful. “The ill-natured task refuse.” Joseph Addison
3. Intractable; not yielding to culture. rare “Ill-natured land.” John Philips
3. not to one's liking; unpleasant; disagreeable. Opposite of agreeable. [wns=2] [Narrower terms: annoying, galling, chafing, irritating, nettlesome, pesky, pestiferous, pestilent, plaguy, plaguey, teasing, vexatious, vexing; nerve-racking, nerve-wracking, stressful, trying ] Syn. — disagreeable.
— Ill′wb-a2′>′-na′wb-a1′>′tured·ly, adverb — Ill′wb-a2′>′-na′wb-a1′>′tured·ness, noun
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54 · with additions: WordNet 1.5