Surly

Definition: Surly

Surly

Adjective

1. Inclined to anger or bad feelings with overtones of menace; "a surly waiter"; "an ugly frame of mind".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "surly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references)

Note: Surly \Sur"ly\, adjective. [Comparative Surlier; superlative Surliest.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonym: Surly

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).

Malevolence

Harsh, disobliging; unkind, unfriendly, ungracious; inofficious; invidious; uncandid; churlish; (discourteous); surly, sullen; a.

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).

Crosswords: Surly

To be surly. (Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now); performing artist: Cracker)

Sheath thy sword, the surly sheriff said, "or surely shall a churlish serf soon shatter thee. (references; author: unknown)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Surly Tim, and Other Stories: And Other Stories (Short Story Index Reprint Series) (reference)

• The Problem of the Surly Servant: A Charles Dodgson/Arthur Conan Doyle Mystery (reference)

• The surly bonds of earth : a novel (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

They were surly with the nineteenth century.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Business

Once a patient reaches the front of a line, he or she frequently faces surly, overworked, underpaid, and unhelpful medical staff. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expression using "surly": surly ugly. Additional references.

Beginning with "surly": surly-looking.

Albanian

i zymtë (black, cheerless, crepuscular, dark, depressed, dismal, dour, drab, dreary, eerie, funeral, funereal, gloomy, glum, grim, heavy, leaden, macabre, mirk, mirthless, morose, mournful, muddy, murk, sad, sepulchral, somber, sombre, spleenful, stark, sulky, sullen, tenebrous, winterly, wintry), i vrazhdë (abrupt, austere, bad tempered, boeotian, boorish, brutal, brutish, churlish, clownish, coarse, crude, discordant, dissonant, earthy, fretful, grave, gross, hard, hard-fisted, harsh, heavy-handed, ill natured, low-bred, morose, murky, robustious, rough, rough spoken, rude, scurrilous, severe, stern, sullen, truculent, uncivil, unfinished, unhandsome, unmannerly), i vrërët (morose, murky), i nxehur (candent, ireful, resentful, shirty, vexed). (various references)

Arabic 

‏فظ (abrupt, blunt, boor, boorish, brusque, brutish, burly, chuffy, churlish, clownish, coarse, country, crude, crusty, curt, discourteous, earthy, grievous, gross, gruff, hairy, harsh, hoarse, ill mannered, impolite, indelicate, low, mannerless, obdurate, off hand, plug ugly, precipitous, rough, rough and ready, rude, ruffianly, rugged, rustic, savage, scathe, serious, shaggy, short, sour, uncivil, uncouth, unkind, unmannerly, unprintable), ‏كالح (gloomy, glum, grave, grim, morose, stern), ‏مكفهر (cloudy, dark, dusky, gloomy, overcast), ‏عابس (austere, gloomy, grouchy, loiterer, morose, stern, sulky), ‏خشن (boorish, bristly, coarse, crude, gross, gruff, ill mannered, impolite, indelicate, jagged, mannerless, plebeian, rasping, raucous, rough, roughen, rowdy, rude, rugged, rustic, sand, scabrous, scratchy, stiff, tough, toughen, uncivil, uncouth, vulgar), ‏جاف (arid, becoming dry, boorish, brittle, churlish, crude, curt, dehydrated, desiccated, dried, dry, dryish, gross, harsh, objectionable, rough, unceremonious, uncivil, uncouth, ungracious, wild), ‏شرس (gnarl, grim, ill, pungent, ratty, ruthless, sour). (various references)

Bulgarian 

груб (abrupt, bearish, boeotian, brusque, callous, churlish, clownish, clumsy, coarse, coarse grained, common, crude, cubbish, curt, earthy, feral, glaring, graceless, gross, gruff, hard boiled, harsh, heavy, hoggish, homespun, horny, loutish, low, material, outlandish, raspy, raucous, raw, rough, rough-shod, rowdy, rude, rugged, russet, rusty, short, tough, uncivil, uncouth, wild and woolly), невъзпитан (cubbish, ill, ill mannered, low, low-bred, mannerless, rude, unbred, underbred, unmannered, unmannerly), навъсен (beetle-browed, gloomy, glum, lowering, morose, murky, saturnine, somber, sombre). (various references)

Czech

nevrlý (bad tempered, bilious, cantankerous, crabbed, crusty, gruff, grumpy, ill tempered, morose, petulant, querulous, snappy, sour, splenetic, sullen), nevlídný (dismal, gruff, inclement, rugged, sour, stern, testy, uncongenial, unfriended, unfriendly, unkind), mrzutý (annoying, awkward, bad tempered, chuff, crabbed, cranky, cross, crusty, dumpish, frumpish, glum, grouchy, joyless, Moody, out of temper, peevish, pettish, rugged, sulky, sullen, testy, untoward, vexatious). (various references)

Danish

uvenlig (brutal, gruff, harsh, nasty, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant). (various references)

Dutch

onaardig (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant), nurks (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant), nors (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant), honds (brutal, gruff, harsh, impolite, rough, rude, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant), bars (abrupt, brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant). (various references)

Esperanto

malafabla (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, unkind, unpleasant). (various references)

Faeroese

óblíður (bleak, brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant). (various references)

Farsi 

ناهنجار (Abnormal, Backhand, Dissonant, Gruff, Inelegant, Lumpy, Maladroit, Malformed, Nefarious, Raucous, Rough, Timber, Uncouth, Unkempt), تندخووگستاخ , باترشروءی . (various references)

Finnish

nyrpeä (cross, glum, morose, sullen), juro (morose, sulky, sullen, unsociable), happamen näköinen (sour-looking). (various references)

French

maussade (sulky, sullen). (various references)

German

unwirsch (brusque, brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, short-temperedly, sour, stroppy, sullen, testily, testy, unkind, unpleasant), mürrische (cantankerously, crabbily, crustily, dourly, fractiously, sullen), mürrisch (cantankerous, crabby, crotchety, crusty, dour, fractious, glum, glumly, grumpy, liverish, morose, morosely, peevish, sulky, sullen, sullenly, testy). (various references)

Greek 

κατσούφησ (glum), σκυθρωπόσ (cross, dour, glum, joyless, morose, saturnine, sulky, sullen), στριμμένοσ (captious, churlish, crabbed, crotchety, cussed, squiggly), αγρωπόσ, δύστροποσ (bloody minded, cantankerous, captious, crabbed, cranky, cross, fretful, grouch, illtempered, morose, peevish, pettish, recalcitrant, shrewish, splenetic, splenish, sullen, testy, untoward, vixenish, waspish, wayward). (various references)

Hebrew 

זעוף (angry, furious, irate, sullen, vexed, wrathful), סר וזעף. (various references)

Hungarian

nyers (assertive, blunt, brusque, burly, coarse, concrete, crude, ecru, feral, gruff, harsh, pure, ramage, raw, rough cast, rough spoken, rude, rugged, undressed), udvariatlan (abrupt, brusque, curt, discourteous, disrespectful, graceless, impolite, inurbane, rude, uncivil), mogorva (as cross as two sticks, bearish, cheerless, crabbed, 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, testy), mérges (angry, annoyed, be angry, cross, fretful, furious, poisonous, ratty, savage, stroppy, stuffy, to be choked, to be in a bad temper, to be miffed, venenous, wrathful), barátságtalan (austere, chilly, cold, crabby, disagreeable, disgruntled, doggish, gaunt, gruff, ill natured, inhospitable, pouty, rugged, sulky, sullen, unaccommodating, unaffable, unfriendly, unkind), bárdolatlan (bumpkin, churlish, inelegant, uncouth). (various references)

Icelandic

óvingjarnlegur (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant), óvænn (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant). (various references)

Indonesian

gentus (offensive), galak (fierce, frantic, gruff, impudent, plucky, sharp and mean, snappish, vicious), berengut. (various references)

Italian

rude (brutal, coarse, gruff, harsh, rough, rude, rugged, sour, sullen, tough, unkind, unpleasant), brusco (abrupt, bluff, blunt, brusque, brutal, cavalier, downright, gruff, harsh, offhand, offhanded, outspoken, rough, sharp, short, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

冷やか (chilly, cold, cold-hearted, composed, cool, curt, indifferent), 冷ややか (chilly, cold, cold-hearted, composed, cool, curt, indifferent). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ひややか (chilly, cold, cold-hearted, composed, cool, curt, indifferent). (various references)

Manx

sproghtagh (infuriating), grouw (dark, dark-looking, dejected, dismal, forbidding, ghastly, gloomy, glum, grim), groamagh (bad-tempered, bearish, bleak, bleak of weather, cheerless, crestfallen, dejected, depressive, disagreeable, dour, forbidding, gloomy, glum, grim, gruff, mopish, morose, prospects, prospects), saturnine, sombre, sorry, stern, sullen). (various references)

Norwegian

uvennlig (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant). (various references)

Pig Latin

urlysay

Polish

nieuprzejmy (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant). (various references)

Portuguese

ríspido (acerbic, crude, harsh, sharp), rabugento (acrimonious, atrabilious, brutal, criss-cross, crusty, currish, faultfinding, fiddle-faddle, fractious, fretful, frumpish, grouty, gruff, harsh, moody, morose, peevish, pettish, querulous, rough, shrewish, snuffy, sour, sullen, techy, testy, tetchy, unkind, unpleasant), mal-humorado (bad-tempered, cantankerous, choleric, crusty, glum, ill-humored, ill-humoured, ill-tempered, moody, mumpish, snappish, snappy, snotty, splenetic, sulky, sullen, techy, testy, tetchy), intratável (crab, crabbed, crabby, cross-grained, currish, fractious, intractable, kittle, restive, snappish, snappy, sullen, unapproachable, uncompromising, unmanageable, unsociable), grosseiro (awkward, bearish, blanket, boorish, bumbling, caddish, churlish, cloddish, clownish, clumsy, coarse, coarse-grained, common, crass, crude, cub, curmudgeon, curmudgeonly, earthy, gross, gruff, harsh, heavy-handed, hoggish, homely, ill-bred, ill-mannered, impolite, incondite, indelicate, inelaborate, joggly, lacerated, left-handed, lob, loutish, low-bred, lubberly, lumpish, piggish, ragged, ribald, rough, rude, rugged, scurrilous, swinish, thick, uncivil, uncouth, uncultivated, unkind, unladylike, unmannerly, unparliamentary, untaught, vulgar, vulgarian, wooden), enfadado (disgruntled, moped, sulky, weariful), carrancudo (beetle, beetling, glum, moody, sulky, sullen), brusco (abrupt, bluff, blunt, brusque, brutal, curt, gruff, harsh, hit-and-run, jerky, rough, sour, sudden, unceremonious, unkind, unpleasant), arisco (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, shy, sour, unkind, unpleasant, unsociable). (various references)

Romanian

ursuz (churlish, crabbed, crabby, crusty, gnarled, grumbler, grumbling, grumpy, morose, peevish, somber, sombre, sulky, sullen, sullenly), posac (adust, mopish, morose, sour, sulky, sullen, sullenly), morocãnos (adust, crabbed, cross-grained, crusty, grouty, gruff, grumbling, grumbly, grumpish, grumpy, ill tempered, morose, morosely, peevish, snuffy, sour, sulky, sullen, tetchy), acru (acerb, acetous, acid, acidulous, acre, acrid, acrimonious, crabbed, cross, green, peevish, sharp, sour, sourly, sulky, tart, testy, touchy, unripe, vinegarish). (various references)

Russian 

угрюмый (farouche, gloomily, glum, morose, sullen). (various references)

Scottish

gruamach (sad), gnù, gnò, gnù (repellant), durga. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

nabusit (blunt, haughtly, haughty). (various references)

Spanish

brusko (brutal, gruff, harsh, rough, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant), bronco (abrupt, brazen, brittle, brutal, crude, gruff, harsh, raw, rough, ruffianly, sour, sullen, unkind, unpleasant, unworked, unwrought). (various references)

Swedish

sur (acid, crabbed, cranky, cross, crotchety, dismal, grouchy, Moody, morose, ratty, sharp, shirty, sour, wet). (various references)

Turkish

suratsız (gnarled, grim, grouchy, morose, po-faced, saturnine, sour, sulky, sullen, ugly, ungenial, vinegary), somurtkan (glum, grumpy, morose, sour, sulky, sullen, unsmiling), sert (acrid, adamant, astringent, austere, bad, bitter, boisterous, bossy, brisk, brutal, cast iron, crusty, cutting, drastic, exact, exacting, fierce, firm, flinty, forbidding, get-tough, granitic, grim, gruff, gusty, hard, hard and fast, hard bitten, hard line, hard set, hardening, hard-hitting, harsh, heady, heavy, heavy-handed, hot, ill natured, inclement, incompressible, inelastic, intemperate, iron, ironclad, keen, nappy, pointed, pungent, rigid, rigorous, rough, round, sclerous, severe, sharp, sharp-set, short, short-spoken, shrewd, smart, solid, sound, spanking, spartan, spiky, stand up, starched, starchy, stark, stern, stiff, strict, stringent, strong, tart, tough, unbending, ungentle, unkind, unrelenting, unshaded, unyielding, vehement, violent), huysuz (acrimonious, as cross as two sticks, bad tempered, bilious, cantankerous, churlish, crabbed, 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, tetchy, thrawn, ugly, untoward, vicious, vixenish, waspish, wildcat, wrongheaded), asık suratlı (dour, glum, lugubrious, morose, repining, saturnine, straight-faced, sulky, vinegary), aksi (adverse, awkward, bad tempered, bilious, bloody minded, cantankerous, contra, contra-, contrary, counter, crabbed, 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, tart, testy, unfavorable, unfavourable, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward, wrongheaded). (various references)

Ukrainian

суворий (arctic, astringent, austere, censorious, dour, grueling, gruelling, hard, hard-faced, inclement, iron, rigid, rigorous, severe, stern, straitlaced, stringent), грубий (abrupt, artless, barbaresque, barbaric, base, bearish, boarish, broad, brusque, brute, caddish, chuffy, churlish, clownish, clumsy, coarse, coarse grained, crass, crude, gross, hard boiled, homely, ill bred, knockabout, offhand, plebeian, primitive, ribald, rough, rough spoken, rude, scratchy, shaggy, swinish, truculent, uncouth), похмурий (adust, bleak, cheerless, dark, darksome, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dull, dusky, frowning, gash, gaunt, ghastly, gloomy, glum, grave, gruff, hard-faced, inhospitable, lowering, macabre, mopish, mournful, murk, nightly, obscure, overcast, sable, saturnine, sepulchral, shadowy, stygian, sullen, tenebrous). (various references)

Vietnamese 

gắt gỏng (crossly, disagreeable, ill-tempered, snappish, snappy, waspish), cáu kỉnh (bed, crossly, edgy, fretful, grouchy, huffish, peevish, querulous, savage). (various references)

Welsh

sarrug (acrimonious, gruff, morose), dreng (harsh, morose, sullen), costog (cur, mastiff), arthog. (various references)

Misspellings

"Surly" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Euryl, gurly, Gurlyi, murly, serly, Shrlie, sirly, Sorby, squirly, sturly, subly, surey, suriy, surl, surley, surlie, surlit, surlyn, sursy, surty, survy, sury, sutly, urly. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: ruly, slur.

-2 letters: sly.

-3 letters: us.

+1 letter: slurry, sourly, sultry, surely.

+2 letters: burleys, crusily, elusory, hurleys, pursily, pylorus, rustily, splurgy, sulfury, surlily, uranyls.

+3 letters: absurdly, blustery, brulyies, butyrals, butyryls, clustery, crousely, crustily, cursedly, delusory, elytrous, gyplures, illusory, pleurisy, porously, resupply, robustly, rugosely, rusticly, salutary, scullery, scurvily, securely, slumbery, sprucely, squarely, sturdily, sulfuryl, sulphury, sultrily, summerly, superbly, superlay, surroyal, trayfuls, trustily, unsurely, urostyle, yourself.