Crab·bed a.
1. Characterized by or manifesting, sourness, peevishness, or moroseness; harsh; cross; cynical; -- applied to feelings, disposition, or manners.
Crabbed age and youth can not live together. --Shak.
2. Characterized by harshness or roughness; unpleasant; -- applied to things; as, a crabbed taste.
3. Obscure; difficult; perplexing; trying; as, a crabbed author. “Crabbed eloquence.”
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose. --Milton.
4. Cramped; irregular; as, crabbed handwriting.
-- Crab*bed*ly, adv. -- Crab*bed*ness, n.
◄ ►
crabbedness
n : a disposition to be ill tempered [syn: crabbiness, crossness]