as in irritable
having or showing a habitually bad temper
an ornery old man who always yells at the neighborhood kids to keep off his lawn
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Recent Examples of ornery
With its abundance of concrete, startling interior views, and play of deep shadows, the design invokes the ornery inventiveness of Kahn and Paul Rudolph, combined with the corporate sleekness of MoMA’s most recent iterations by Yoshio Taniguchi and Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
—
Justin Davidson, Curbed, 3 Nov. 2025
At 0-2, the Chiefs may be a little more ornery than usual.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 22 Sep. 2025
The goal is to capitalize on the holidays when kids will be out of school and eager to see some ornery avians.
—Brent Lang, Variety, 18 Sep. 2025
That ornery cleric was Moqtada al-Sadr, the son of Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, a grand ayatollah assassinated almost certainly by Saddam’s order in 1999.
—Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ornery
Justin Davidson, Curbed, 3 Nov. 2025
At 0-2, the Chiefs may be a little more ornery than usual.
—Andrew Greif, NBC news, 22 Sep. 2025
The goal is to capitalize on the holidays when kids will be out of school and eager to see some ornery avians.
—Brent Lang, Variety, 18 Sep. 2025
That ornery cleric was Moqtada al-Sadr, the son of Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr, a grand ayatollah assassinated almost certainly by Saddam’s order in 1999.
—Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for ornery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ornery
Adjective
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Rather than get irritable online, Medeiros did something positive about it.—
Dan Medeiros,
The Herald News,
27 Feb. 2026
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Manic episodes are described as prolonged periods of mood instability, in which a person can experience extreme increases in energy or euphoria, or alternatively, feel depressed or unusually irritable.—
Edward Segarra,
USA Today,
24 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Rodin told her, though, that Marum was angry about having been airbrushed out of the picture.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
14 Mar. 2026
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What’s telling is that Senators owner Michael Andlauer toned down his comments regarding this issue over the past year, as compared to his angry remarks when the original ruling came down.—
Pierre LeBrun,
New York Times,
12 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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The journey is hampered by lack of money and other misfortunes, and it’s eventually interrupted by a gunshot, announcing the cantankerous presence of Tiga.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
6 Mar. 2026
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High pop flys in left field during day games at the club’s spring ballpark have proven at times to be a cantankerous venture.—
Shawn McFarland,
Dallas Morning News,
22 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The film, set in 1920s Montana, unwraps the lives of the Burbank brothers, Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons), after George marries lonely widow Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst), setting surly Phil into a tailspin of cruelty that envelops the family.—
Sezin Devi Keohler,
Entertainment Weekly,
7 Mar. 2026
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The actor, who portrays surly Russian hockey captain Ilya Rozanov in the show, is in no way, shape or form Russian, and learned to speak the language rather flawlessly in just three weeks before filming.—
Dan Heching,
CNN Money,
28 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Sun shrinking and getting hotter; everything bilious, oxygenless, not great for living.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
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Minaj’s bilious flurry is possibly related to claims that she is owed between $100 to 200 million related to her stake in Tidal, the music streaming service launched and spearheaded by Jay-Z in 2015 and was sold to Jack Dorsey’s company Square for $297 million in 2021.—
Andrew Flanagan,
Variety,
15 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Another bill would put regulations around data centers, although lawmakers in the final days stripped out some of the language that tech companies found disagreeable.—
Garrett Shanley,
Miami Herald,
13 Mar. 2026
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The day was cold and disagreeable, disappointing those who hoped for warm, sunny weather for the contest between Bogardus and Carver.—
AJ Willingham,
AJC.com,
24 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Better is Danny Elfman’s spartan and fraught score, particularly the dyspeptic drums.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Jan. 2026
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But Kael sensed in her less dyspeptic moments that there was something special about Redford.—
Stephen Galloway,
HollywoodReporter,
18 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ornery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ornery. Accessed 18 Mar. 2026.
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