crabbed

(redirected from crabbedly)
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crabbed

(krăbd, krăb′ĭd)
adj.
1. Irritable and perverse in disposition; ill-tempered.
2. Difficult to understand; complicated.
3. Difficult to read; cramped: crabbed handwriting.
[Middle English, from crabbe, crab (influenced by crab); see crab1.]
crab′bed·ly adv.
crab′bed·ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

crabbed

(ˈkræbɪd)
adj
1. surly; irritable; perverse
2. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) (esp of handwriting) cramped and hard to decipher
[C13: probably from crab1 (from its wayward gait), influenced by crab(apple) (from its tartness)]
ˈcrabbedly adv
ˈcrabbedness n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

crab•bed

(ˈkræb ɪd)

adj.
1. difficult to read, as handwriting.
2. hard to understand; intricate and obscure.
3. ill-tempered; surly.
[1250–1300; Middle English; see crab 1, -ed 3]
crab′bed•ly, adv.
crab′bed•ness, n.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
crabby, crabbed - Crabby and crabbed derive from a crab's sideways movement and habit of snapping (thought to suggest a perverse or irritable nature).
See also related terms for perverse.
Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Adj. 1. [画像:crabbed - annoyed and irritable]crabbed - annoyed and irritable
ill-natured - having an irritable and unpleasant disposition
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

crabbed

adjective
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations

crabbed

[ˈkræbd] ADJ
1. [writing] → apretado, indescifrable
2. [mood] → malhumorado, hosco
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

crabbed

adj
handwriting → kritzelig, unleserlich
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
References in periodicals archive ?
In an age in which the sea of faith has withdrawn so very far from the coast, there are few metaphorical rock pools left behind, inhabited either by Protestant readers crabbedly sheltering from pre-Reformation devotional practices, or by Catholic readers shrinking like sea-anemones from the touch of a Protestant finger.
Searching for True Felicity: Some Masterpieces of Early Scottish Religious Poetryl
22-23) to the early modern Church, coupled with gratuitous attacks on the Inquisition and descriptions of Rudolph's Spanish, Catholic mother as "fanatical," "crabbedly religious," and "dogmatic" (pp.
The Theatre of the World: Alchemy, Astrology, and Magic in Renaissance Prague
It doth spite me / To think how crabbedly this silk lace will bite me." (19)
Haphazardly ambidextrous: interpretations of the Vice in 16th-century English drama