Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Crabbed |
CrabbedAdjective1. Perversely irritable. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "crabbed" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Slang in 1811 | CRABBED. Sour, ill-tempered, difficult. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: CrabbedSynonyms: bad-tempered (adj), crabby (adj), cross (adj), fussy (adj), grouchy (adj), grumpy (adj), ill-tempered (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Difficulty | Difficult to deal with, hard to deal with; ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby; not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water. |
Discourtesy | Taint, sour, crabbed, sharp, short, trenchant, sarcastic, biting, doggish, caustic, virulent, bitter, acrimonious, venomous, contumelious; snarling; Verb: surly, surly as a bear; perverse; grim, sullen; a; peevish; (irascible). |
Obscurity | Adjective: obscure; Noun: crabbed, involved, confused. |
Sullenness | Adjective: sullen, sulky; ill-tempered, ill-humored, ill-affected, ill-disposed; grouty; in an ill temper, in a bad temper, in a shocking temper, in an ill humor, in a bad humor, in a shocking humor; out of temper, out of humor; knaggy, torvous, crusty, crabbed; sour, sour as a crab; surly; (discourteous). |
Unintelligibility | Indefinite, garbled; (indistinct); perplexed; (confused); undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous; mysterious; mystic, mystical; acroamatic, acroamatical; metempirical; transcendental; occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed. |
Writing | Cacography, griffonage, barbouillage; bad hand, cramped hand, crabbed hand, illegible hand; scribble; Verb: pattes de mouche; ill-formed letters; pothooks and hangers. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Crabbed |
| English words defined with "crabbed": Frabbit ♦ Grimaced ♦ Sour plum. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "crabbed": Malbecco. (references) |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Clumsy work, crabbed worker. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Crabbed" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 62.50% of the time. "Crabbed" is used about 8 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 62.5% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Lexical Verb (past participle) | 25% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Lexical Verb (past tense) | 12.5% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 8 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "crabbed": write in a crabbed hand. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| Language | Translations for "crabbed"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | i zemëruar (angry, biliary, crabby, crusty, embittered, indignant, mad, rampant, Wroth), i irritueshëm. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | نكد المزاج (morose), سيئ الطبع, صعب الإرضاء (choosey, dainty, difficult, fidgety, finical). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | свадлив (cantankerous, contentious, crusty, cursed, quarrelsome, rowdy, shrewish, termagant, ugly, vixenish), кисел (acetous, acid, acidulated, acidulous, crabby, disgruntled, grouchy, grumpy, humpy, ill-humored, ill-humoured, liverish, livery, peeved, pettish, petulant, querulous, sour, tart, vinegar, vinegary), неразбран (unintelligible, unreadable, wrongheaded), нечетлив (cramped, illegible, indecipherable, niggling, unreadable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 捉蟹. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | nevrlý (bad tempered, bilious, cantankerous, crusty, gruff, grumpy, ill tempered, morose, petulant, querulous, snappy, sour, splenetic, sullen, surly), mrzutý (annoying, awkward, bad tempered, chuff, cranky, cross, crusty, dumpish, frumpish, glum, grouchy, joyless, Moody, out of temper, peevish, pettish, rugged, sulky, sullen, surly, testy, untoward, vexatious), mrzoutský (cantankerous, crotchety, crusty, morose, querulous), morousovitý, kostrbatý (gritty, sprawling, uneven). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | revêche, hargneux (crusty), grincheux (cross-patch, crotchety). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | nörgelte (carped, caviled, grizzled). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | στριμμένοσ (captious, churlish, crotchety, cussed, squiggly, surly), στυφνόσ, γκρινιάρησ (cantankerous, fault finder, fussy, grouch, grouchy, growler, mutterer, nagger, pettish, snarler, snarling, sorehead), ξυνόσ (sour), δύστροποσ (bloody minded, cantankerous, captious, cranky, cross, fretful, grouch, illtempered, morose, peevish, pettish, recalcitrant, shrewish, splenetic, splenish, sullen, surly, testy, untoward, vixenish, waspish, wayward). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | קש" לפע וח. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | nehezen olvasható, mogorva (as cross as two sticks, bearish, cheerless, criss cross, crusty, disagreeable, disgruntled, grim, grouchy, grousing, gruff, have the sullens, ill tempered, like a bear with a sore head, morose, pouty, saturnine, snapping, snuffy, somber, sulky, sullen, surly, testy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | marah (angry, chafe, crusty, indignant, irate, mad, shirty, wrathful, wroth). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | sgarbato (churlish, ill mannered, impolite, rude), ruvido (coarse, harsh, rough, rugged, scabrous, scraggy, scratchy, shaggy), bisbetico (cantankerous, ill-humored, ill-humoured, shrewish, snappish), acido (acetous, acid, acidic, acids, acrid, sour, tart). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 게를 잡". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | granganagh (cantankerous, captious, cattish, catty, churlish, crabbed of person, crabby, cross, cross annoyed, cynical, disagreeable, fractious, fretful, grumpy, ill-humoured, ill-natured, ill-tempered, niggly person, peevish, snappy), do-lhaih (crabbed writing, indecipherable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | abbedcray complicado (abstract, complex, complicated, crab, elaborate, intricate, knotted, knotty, many-sided, puzzling, tricky), irritável (bilious, crab, crusty, edgy, fretful, irascible, irritable, liver-colored, liver-coloured, livery, nervous, nervy, petulant, shirty, short-tempered, techy, testy, tetchy, touchy, waspish), intricado (crab, intricate, mazy), intratável (crab, crabby, cross-grained, currish, fractious, intractable, kittle, restive, snappish, snappy, sullen, surly, unapproachable, uncompromising, unmanageable, unsociable), desagradável (bad, beastly, bleak, brackish, desagreeable, disagreeable, disgusting, dismal, displeasing, distasteful, dreadful, dreary, fearful, forbidding, foul, frightful, ghastly, grisly, horrible, invidious, nasty, objectionable, obnoxious, offensive, repellent, seamy, ugly, uncomfortable, uncongenial, undesirable, ungrateful, unlovely, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unthankful, untoward, unwelcome, unwished), avinagrado (crab, vinegary). (various references) confuz (abashed, addle, bewildered, blurred, chaotic, confused, dim, embarrassed, faint, gloomily, hazy, hugger mugger, misty, muddy, muzzy, nebulous, stodgy, turbid, vague, washy, wrongheaded), ursuz (churlish, crabby, crusty, gnarled, grumbler, grumbling, grumpy, morose, peevish, somber, sombre, sulky, sullen, sullenly, surly), rebarbativ (grim, unprepossessing), oţãrât (angry, enraged, furious, sulky, sullen, sullenly), neciteţ (illegible, illegibly, indecipherable, loose), morocãnos (adust, cross-grained, crusty, grouty, gruff, grumbling, grumbly, grumpish, grumpy, ill tempered, morose, morosely, peevish, snuffy, sour, sulky, sullen, surly, tetchy), iritabil (choleric, combustible, crusty, excitable, fretful, gusty, inflammable, irascible, irritable, jumpy, petulaht, petulant, testy, tetchy, ticklish, waspy), ilizibil (illegible, unreadable), greu de înţeles (abstruse), arţãgos (cantankerous, contradictious, cross-grained, crusty, currish, fractious, gruff, peevish, pettish, quarrelsome, snappy), acru (acerb, acetous, acid, acidulous, acre, acrid, acrimonious, cross, green, peevish, sharp, sour, sourly, sulky, surly, tart, testy, touchy, unripe, vinegarish), acrit (acidulated, damaged, grumpy, soured). (various references) сердитый (angry, cross, grouty, grumpy, irate, rambunctious, rusty, shirty, snuffy, sour, surly), раздражительный (apoplectic, bad tempered, bad-tempered, chippy, choleric, crab, crabby, criss cross, crusty, doggish, fractious, fretful, grouty, grumpy, huffish, huffy, irascible, irritable, livery, ornery, peevish, pettish, petulant, quick tempered, quicktempered, rambunctious, rusty, short tempered, snappish, snooty, snuffy, spleenful, splenetic, testy, touchy), недовольный (acidulated, discontent, discontented, disgruntled, displeased, malcontent, non-content, pouter, querulous, sorehead, uncontented, unpleased). (various references) malhumorado (bad tempered, bilious, cantankerous, crabby, cross, disagreeable, disgruntled, fractious, glum, grouchy, grumpy, ill tempered, ill-humored, ill-humoured, low-spirited, moody, morose, mumpish, peevish, pettish, petulant, splenetic, sulky, sullen, surly), indescifrable (indecipherable, undecipherable), apretado (clasped, constrained, cramped, jammed, pressed, serried, tight, tighten). (various references) vresig (cross, cross-grained, crotchety, crusty, disagreeable, grouchy, gruff, grumpy, ill-humored, ill-humoured, morose, peevish, perverse, ratty, sulky, vinegary), sur (acid, cranky, cross, crotchety, dismal, grouchy, Moody, morose, ratty, sharp, shirty, sour, surly, wet), retlig (fretful, fretting, ill tempered, irritable, moody, peevish, pettish, snappy, snuffy, testy, touchy, waspish), oläslig (illegible, indecipherable, unreadable), krafsig, gnetig (cramped). (various references) ters (acrimonious, adverse, agley, Amiss, awkward, awry, backward, backwards, bad tempered, bloody minded, churlish, contradictory, contrary, converse, counter, cranky, curt, cussed, dour, face down, fractious, fretful, Froward, frowning, grumpy, ill natured, illegitimate, indecorous, inimical, inverse, inversely, inverted, mis-, negative, off, opposing, opposite, perverse, retro-, reverse, snuffy, sub-, unfavorable, unfavourable, upside down, versed, wayward, wrong, wrongly), okunaksız (blind, blinkered, cramped, hieroglyphic, illegible, unreadable), karman çorman (all mixed up, chaotic, confused, crabby, higgledy-piggledy, messy, mussy, pell mell, pellmell, ragged, topsyturvy), kargacık burgacık (crooked, scratchy, twisted), huysuz (acrimonious, as cross as two sticks, bad tempered, bilious, cantankerous, churlish, crabby, crank, cranky, cross-grained, crosspatch, crotchety, crusty, cursed, difficult, disagreeable, disgruntled, doggish, farouche, fractious, fretful, gnarled, grouchy, gruff, grumbling, grumpy, ill natured, ill tempered, ill-humored, ill-humoured, liverish, mean, Moody, out of humour, out of sorts, peeved, peevish, peppery, perverse, pettish, petulant, prickly, quarrelsome, querulous, ratty, rusty, shirty, snappish, spleenful, spleenish, splenetic, stroppy, sulky, surly, tetchy, thrawn, ugly, untoward, vicious, vixenish, waspish, wildcat, wrongheaded), darmadağın (cluttered, crabby), aksi (adverse, awkward, bad tempered, bilious, bloody minded, cantankerous, contra, contra-, contrary, counter, crabby, cross, cross-grained, crosspatch, crotchety, doggish, dour, evil, fractious, fretful, Froward, gruff, ill natured, ill tempered, ill-humored, ill-humoured, inverse, negatory, opposite, peevish, perverse, petulant, recalcitrant, refractory, reverse, shirty, snappish, snuffy, spleenful, spleenish, stroppy, stubborn, sullen, surly, tart, testy, unfavorable, unfavourable, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward, wrongheaded). (various references) сердитий (angry, cross-grained, grouty, irate, porky, rambunctious, roily, shirty, sulky), кострубатий, нерозбірливий (cramped, illegible, indecipherable, niggling, obscure, unreadable), нечіткий (ambiguous, amorphous, blurred, cramped, illegible, nubilous, obscure), буркотливий (acidulated, acidulous, capernoited, criss cross, cross-grained, currish, fumbling, grouchy, nagging, sourish, testy), дратівливий (bilious, capernoited, crabby, criss cross, exasperating, fretful, grumpy, hoity toity, impatient, irascible, irritable, petulant, short tempered, spleenful, tetchy, warm). (various references) lằng nhằng, hay gắt gỏng; chua chát khó đọc lúng túng, hay c u nh u (peevish). (various references) crebachlyd (wrinkled). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Cancer, Cancridae, Chaceon maritae, Geryon quinquedens, Scylla serrata. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "crabbed": crabbedness, crabbednesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Crabbed" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: cabbed, cabbied, carabid, crabba, crabbe, Crabbes, crabbit, crabe, crabey, crambed, cranbeads, Cribben. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "crabbed" (pronounced kra"bd) |
| 4 | -r a" b d | drabbed, grabbed. |
| 3 | -a" b d | jabbed, nabbed, stabbed. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-b-c-d-e-r" | |
-1 letter: barbed, braced, cabbed, dabber. | |
-2 letters: acerb, acred, arced, ardeb, barbe, barde, bared, beard, brace, bread, caber, cadre, cared, cedar, debar, raced. | |
-3 letters: abbe, abed, aced, acre, babe, bade, barb, bard, bare, bead, bear, brad, brae, bred, cade, carb, card, care, crab, dace, darb, dare, dear, drab, race, read. | |
-4 letters: ace, arb, arc, are, bad. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-b-c-d-e-r" | |
+2 letters: barbecued, clabbered, scrabbled. | |
+3 letters: barebacked, bedchamber, breadcrumb, scabbarded. | |
+4 letters: bedchambers, blackbirded, blackbirder, breadcrumbs, crabbedness, describable. | |
+5 letters: blackbirders, hardscrabble. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Quotations: Fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Translations: Modern 8. Translations: Ancient | 9. Derivations 10. Rhymes 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.