as in irritable
having or showing a habitually bad temper
an ill-natured and unpleasant old horse that sometimes bites
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Recent Examples of ill-natured
Annalise, the most ill-natured guest to embark on the Bravado since the legendary Carlos, complains about the absence of truffles (not in season) on her pasta.
—
Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 20 Jan. 2026
Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 20 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ill-natured
Adjective
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They can be withdrawn or irritable.—
Jessica Guynn,
USA Today,
14 June 2026
-
While Hockney worked, Auden, as the artist recalled, played the part of the impatient, irritable grump.—
Mark Rozzo,
Vanity Fair,
12 June 2026
Adjective
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Lee remembers her parents sending her to a friend’s house several blocks away when an angry mob showed up at her family’s home to protest Black residents moving into the Fort Worth neighborhood.—
Tesfaye Negussie,
ABC News,
19 June 2026
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According to the volunteer, Niemann got angry after NOT getting fire ant relief, kicked a white flag, kicked some sand, and then proceeded to launch his iron into the fescue area.—
Zach Dean OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
19 June 2026
Adjective
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There are also a lot of people who have never dreamed of being disagreeable in public, much less considered joining a raucous social movement.—
Ashley Belanger,
ArsTechnica,
12 June 2026
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The disagreeable object proved no match for the most fertile person in Montana.—
Jonathan Franzen,
New Yorker,
1 June 2026
Adjective
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The cantankerous Jackson Lamb is back in a first look at season six of Slow Horses.—
Lily Ford,
HollywoodReporter,
11 June 2026
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The cantankerous Croatian lasted until November.—
James Horncastle,
New York Times,
2 June 2026
Adjective
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Sun shrinking and getting hotter; everything bilious, oxygenless, not great for living.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
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Minaj’s bilious flurry is possibly related to claims that she is owed between $100 to 200 million related to her stake in Tidal, the music streaming service launched and spearheaded by Jay-Z in 2015 and was sold to Jack Dorsey’s company Square for $297 million in 2021.—
Andrew Flanagan,
Variety,
15 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Still, the internet nurtures these Hobbesian, splenetic views.—
Annie Lowrey,
The Atlantic,
24 May 2026
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Meanwhile, the commentator and controversialist Piers Morgan, an obsessively close observer and relentless critic of Meghan, inevitably waded in with his usual splenetic views.—
Sarah Lyall,
New York Times,
17 Sep. 2022
Adjective
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Better is Danny Elfman’s spartan and fraught score, particularly the dyspeptic drums.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Jan. 2026
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But Kael sensed in her less dyspeptic moments that there was something special about Redford.—
Stephen Galloway,
HollywoodReporter,
18 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Leach also would publicly call out his players and could get ornery when questioned about his team’s shortcomings.—
Ralph D. Russo,
New York Times,
2 June 2026
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The rabbi is ornery, arrogant, sometimes cruel.—
Daniel Felsenthal,
Vulture,
26 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ill-natured.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ill-natured. Accessed 21 Jun. 2026.
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