- ornery
- ornery 1816, Amer.Eng. dialectal contraction of ORDINARY (Cf. ordinary). "Commonplace," hence "of poor quality, coarse, ugly." By c.1860 the sense had evolved to "mean, cantankerous."
Etymology dictionary. 2014.
ornery
Look at other dictionaries:
ornery — index malicious Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 … Law dictionary
ornery — [adj] mean cantankerous, contemptible, crabby, cranky, crusty*, difficult, disagreeable, grouchy*, grumpy*, hard nosed*, ignoble, ill tempered, irritable, nasty, obstinate, quarrelsome, rotten, sour, surly, testy, unfriendly, vicious; concepts… … New thesaurus
ornery — [ôr′nər ē] adj. [altered < ORDINARY] Informal 1. having an ugly or mean disposition 2. obstinate ☆ orneriness n … English World dictionary
ornery — orneriness, n. /awr neuh ree/, adj., ornerier, orneriest. Dial. 1. ugly and unpleasant in disposition or temper: No one can get along with my ornery cousin. 2. stubborn: I can t do a thing with that ornery mule. 3. low or vile. 4. inferior or… … Universalium
ornery — adjective /ˈɔːnəɹi,ˈɔːɹnɚi,ˈɔːnɹi/ a) Cantankerous, stubborn, disagreeable. “Grandpa, what’s ‘ornery’?” / “Oh, you know. Mean. Contrary. Rebellious.” b) Mischievous, prankish, teasing, disagreeable but in a good way. Curley: I aint sayin I … Wiktionary
ornery — [[t]ɔ͟ː(r)nəri[/t]] ADJ GRADED (disapproval) If you describe someone as ornery, you mean that they are bad tempered, difficult, and often do things that are mean. [AM, INFORMAL] The old lady was still being ornery, but at least she had consented… … English dictionary
ornery — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) adj. contrary, difficult, cantankerous; irascible. See disobedience, irascibility. II (Roget s 3 Superthesaurus) a. mean, nasty, ugly, irritable, feisty, surly, cranky, crabby, short tempered, *short… … English dictionary for students
ornery — or|ne|ry [ˈo:nəri US ˈo:r ] adj AmE [Date: 1800 1900; Origin: ordinary] behaving in an unreasonable and often angry way, especially by doing the opposite of what people want you to do ▪ an ornery kid … Dictionary of contemporary English
ornery — or|ner|y [ ɔrnəri ] adjective AMERICAN OFTEN HUMOROUS quick to argue or become annoyed with people: GRUMPY: He s all right, just a bit ornery in the morning … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
ornery — adj Mean. Arnold had an ornery bull that no one could approach. 1850s … Historical dictionary of American slang
