cross-grained

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cross-grained
Adjective
  • Over the years, site landowners from the same family could be cantankerous (Elmer Lindsey) or friendly and willing to be engaged (Howard and Doris Lindsey).
    Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman, 22 Oct. 2024
  • Trouble is, his nemesis frequently escapes Cat Jail, which annoys the cantankerous Chief (Lil Rel Howery) and the city’s mean Mayor (Cheri Oteri).
    Courtney Howard, Variety, 29 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Sometimes that means confronting disagreeable people.
    David Plazas, The Tennessean, 24 Apr. 2024
  • The most important reason to avoid obsessing over China’s disagreeable regime, however, is that this fixation threatens a core U.S. advantage: Washington’s wide network of partners and allies.
    Evan S. Medeiros, Foreign Affairs, 8 July 2021
Adjective
  • Trying to Kill Each Other' And Walken is marvelous — querulous, petty, cruel — as the Emperor.
    Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 29 Feb. 2024
  • Instead, Gerwig and Baumbach promote querulous sloganeering.
    Armond White, National Review, 19 July 2023
Adjective
  • Everyone within her radius bears the germophobe’s wrath, with the only one who can occasionally pierce through her bilious anger being her upbeat hair-stylist sister Chantal (Michelle Austin), a mother of two vibrant daughters.
    Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 10 Jan. 2025
  • The piece ran under an illustration of a black spatula dripping sinister goblets of melting plastic, against a background of bilious green.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 24 Dec. 2024
Adjective
  • The offensive line, in Monken’s estimation, is the most talented and possibly most ornery unit he’s had at West Point, all the way down to wrestling each other to settle arguments about who’s tougher.
    Brian Hamilton, The Athletic, 21 Nov. 2024
  • They’re led by John Dutton III, an ornery character who nevertheless carries the kind of gravitas that only a veteran movie star like Kevin Costner can bring.
    Noel Murray, Vulture, 18 Nov. 2024
Adjective
  • My stepfather inherited a surly, punkish teen dude.
    Erik Piepenburg, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2025
  • That criticism, along with other struggles, has seemingly influenced Davis to be in a surly and unpredictable mood over the past two months.
    Brian Mazique, Forbes, 12 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Others, like his irascible Celebrity Jeopardy standout Sean Connery, are the uncanny product of masterful tinkering, with Hammond eventually stretching the real and the perceived into a shape as recognizable as the actual figure himself.
    Dennis Perkins, EW.com, 16 Feb. 2025
  • The irascible Helms' proposal was reduced to an agreement that USAID would remain an independent agency, but the administrator would obtain the Secretary of State's approval of its annual budget request.
    Brady Anderson Special to the Democrat-Gazette, arkansasonline.com, 6 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Rojas’s recollections weren’t peevish—fine work was produced under these conditions.
    Ian Parker, The New Yorker, 20 Jan. 2025
  • The songs are muscular and syncretic as ever, but the normally peevish rapper doesn’t maintain his trolling energy for the full record, settling into a questioning and pensive pace.
    Stephen Kearse, TIME, 8 Dec. 2024
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Thesaurus Entries Near cross-grained

Cite this Entry

“Cross-grained.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cross-grained. Accessed 22 Feb. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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