ILL-NATURED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ill-natured mean? 

• ILL-NATURED (adjective)
  The adjective ILL-NATURED has 1 sense:

1. having an irritable and unpleasant disposition

  Familiarity information: ILL-NATURED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ILL-NATURED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having an irritable and unpleasant disposition

Similar:

atrabilious; bilious; dyspeptic; liverish (irritable as if suffering from indigestion)

vinegarish; vinegary (having a sour disposition; ill-tempered)

surly; ugly (inclined to anger or bad feelings with overtones of menace)

spoiled; spoilt (having the character or disposition harmed by pampering or oversolicitous attention)

snappish; snappy (apt to speak irritably)

nagging; shrewish (continually complaining or faultfinding)

shirty; snorty ((British informal) ill-tempered or annoyed)

misogynistic; misogynous (hating women in particular)

misanthropic; misanthropical (hating mankind in general)

huffish; sulky (sullen or moody)

disagreeable (unpleasant to interact with)

dark; dour; glowering; glum; moody; morose; saturnine; sour; sullen (showing a brooding ill humor)

currish (resembling a cur; snarling and rude)

crusty; curmudgeonly; gruff; ill-humored; ill-humoured (brusque and surly and forbidding)

cranky; fractious; irritable; nettlesome; peckish; peevish; pettish; petulant; scratchy; techy; testy; tetchy (easily irritated or annoyed)

bad-tempered; crabbed; crabby; cross; fussy; grouchy; grumpy; ill-tempered (annoyed and irritable)

churlish (having a bad disposition; surly)

choleric; hot-tempered; hotheaded; irascible; quick-tempered; short-tempered (quickly aroused to anger)

cantankerous; crotchety; ornery (having a difficult and contrary disposition)

bristly; prickly; splenetic; waspish (very irritable)

Also:

unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)

Attribute:

nature (the complex of emotional and intellectual attributes that determine a person's characteristic actions and reactions)

Antonym:

good-natured (having an easygoing and cheerful disposition)

 Context examples 

But at least, Mama, you cannot deny the absurdity of the accusation, though you may not think it intentionally ill-natured.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

This was the letter—A most scandalous, ill-natured rumour has just reached me, and I write, dear Fanny, to warn you against giving the least credit to it, should it spread into the country.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He has not an ill-natured look.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In consequence, an ill-natured story got about, that Em'ly wanted to be a lady.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As no scandalous, ill-natured rumour had reached her, it was impossible for her to understand much of this strange letter.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

What an ill-natured woman his mother is, an't she?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

His marriage was now fast approaching, and she was at length so far resigned as to think it inevitable, and even repeatedly to say, in an ill-natured tone, that she “wished they might be happy.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Elinor was not inclined, after a little observation, to give him credit for being so genuinely and unaffectedly ill-natured or ill-bred as he wished to appear.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

On being made acquainted with the present Mr. Darcy's treatment of him, she tried to remember some of that gentleman's reputed disposition when quite a lad which might agree with it, and was confident at last that she recollected having heard Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy formerly spoken of as a very proud, ill-natured boy.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)