ornery
Disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal withDisagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with; cantankerous.
» Don't be so ornery. Just do what you're told.
Meaning
3 senses(Appalachia, especially, informal)Disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with; cantankerous.
grantig, quengelig
(US, general, humorous, informal)Troublesome to deal with in a good way; mischievous, prankish, teasing.
(obsolete)Ordinary, commonplace; hence, inferior, plain-looking, unpleasant.
- having a difficult and contrary disposition
Examples
2 sentencesDon't be so ornery. Just do what you're told.
Don't be so ornery. Just do what you're told to do.
Translations
2 languagesOrigin
A contracted or dialectal pronunciation of ordinary. Sense 3 (“ordinary, commonplace”) wasA contracted or dialectal pronunciation of ordinary. Sense 3 (“ordinary, commonplace”) was the earliest sense; the meaning of the word then shifted to “inferior, plain-looking, unpleasant”—presumably due to ordinariness—and finally to sense 1 (“disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with”).
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Forms
ornerier, orneriestSynonyms
14 synonyms- having a difficult and contrary disposition:cantankerouscrotchety
Word family
2 related wordsLessons for this word
2 lessons- A2Comparatives — Because it has a comparative form
- A2Superlatives — Because it has a superlative form