Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Irritable and perverse in disposition; ill-tempered.
- adjective Difficult to understand; complicated.
- adjective Difficult to read; cramped.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Sour or harsh to the taste.
- Perverse; cross; peevish; morose; springing from a sour temper or character: as, a crabbed man.
- Difficult; perplexing; uninviting: as, a crabbed author or subject.
- Very intricate or irregular; difficult to decipher or understand: as, crabbed handwriting; crabbed characters.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Characterized by or manifesting, sourness, peevishness, or moroseness; harsh; cross; cynical; -- applied to feelings, disposition, or manners.
- adjective Characterized by harshness or roughness; unpleasant; -- applied to things.
- adjective Obscure; difficult; perplexing; trying.
- adjective Cramped; irregular.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Bad-tempered orcantankerous . - adjective
Cramped ,bent . - adjective of handwriting Crowded
together anddifficult toread . - verb Simple past tense and past participle of
crab .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective annoyed and irritable
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The word crabbed has appeared in three New York Times articles in the past year, including on Feb. 23 in the theater review "The Boarders Put the Polish on Eccentric," by Charles Isherwood:
NYT > Home Page By THE LEARNING NETWORK 2011
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And then I wanted some day to take your children on my knee and hear them call the crabbed old monk Uncle Kieth.”
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And then I wanted some day to take your children on my knee and hear them call the crabbed old monk Uncle Kieth. "
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This can be described as crabbed, misbegotten, petty technicality.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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This can be described as crabbed, misbegotten, petty technicality.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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This can be described as crabbed, misbegotten, petty technicality.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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Conscience -- as the boys called the crabbed old quaker, that's dead now -- they three used to go to the poor-house when your father was there, and get round his bed, and talk to him for all the world as Eliphaz,
The Confidence-Man Herman Melville 1855
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_ That may be called a crabbed reason, for it {329} goes backward like a crab.
A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II) Augustus De Morgan 1838
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The "crabbed" data on hourly earnings should be replaced with data on all employees and include all wage/salary/benefit disbursements.
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Carnanton, the old-time abode of William Noye, the "crabbed"
The Cornish Riviera Sidney Heath 1907
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