Ornery - Definition And Meaning - Wordnik

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Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Mean-spirited, disagreeable, and contrary in disposition; cantankerous.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Ordinary; common; mean; coarse; ugly: a term of depreciation, ranging from mild disapproval to great contempt.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Appalachian Cantankerous, stubborn, disagreeable.
  • adjective humorous, southern US Mischievous, prankish, teasing, disagreeable but in a good way.
  • adjective obsolete Commonplace, inferior.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having a difficult and contrary disposition

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of ordinary.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Contracted or dialectal pronunciation of ordinary.

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Examples

  • He especially liked the way it called the ornery cloud Fatso.

    Up In A Heaval Anthony, Piers 2002

  • Lady Macbeth says: Wouldst thou have that Which thou call the ornery of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem,

    Kill Ten Rats 2009

  • She says the word "ornery" more than it should be used, and when she tells her dog to get down off the couch, the word "down" has a strong, country twang to it.

    Scott Janssen: Chic-fil-A Ruined My Relationship Scott Janssen 2011

  • She says the word "ornery" more than it should be used, and when she tells her dog to get down off the couch, the word "down" has a strong, country twang to it.

    Scott Janssen: Chic-fil-A Ruined My Relationship Scott Janssen 2011

  • He turns out to be Finn Killian someone she'd met and thought "old and kind of ornery" at 21 but now finds mesmerizing.

    East Egg, Meet Southampton 2010

  • They are kind of ornery and independent up there, too.

    Another Poll Finds Obama Leading In Historically-Red Virginia 2009

  • Gelb, lead singer of the band Giant Sand, and Oldham, from Palace Brothers, are the kind of ornery characters that country music never seems to know what to do with.

    Cheatin' Hearts, Flannel Shirts 2008

  • And I have two cats and they ` re kind of ornery, and they ` re able to open the back door, so ...

    CNN Transcript Dec 20, 2007 2007

  • But he also struck me a the kind of chap who didn't suffer fools gladly - what the Americans would call an 'ornery' and 'cussed' type.

    Archive 2004-04-25 Laban 2004

  • But he also struck me a the kind of chap who didn't suffer fools gladly - what the Americans would call an 'ornery' and 'cussed' type.

    UK Commentators Laban 2004

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synonyms (90)

Words with the same meaning

  1. aureate
  2. baleful
  3. balky
  4. base
  5. bearish
  6. bitchy
  7. bombastic
  8. breachy
  9. cankered
  10. cantankerous
  11. churlish
  12. common
  13. consonant
  14. contrary
  15. contumacious
  16. crabbed
  17. cranky
  18. cross
  19. cross-grained
  20. crotchety
  21. crusty
  22. cussed
  23. declamatory
  24. defiant
  25. difficult
  26. disagreeable
  27. euphuistic
  28. excitable
  29. feisty
  30. flowery
  31. fractious
  32. froward
  33. grandiloquent
  34. harmful
  35. hateful
  36. huffish
  37. huffy
  38. impatient of control
  39. iniquitous
  40. invidious
  41. irascible
  42. irritable
  43. loud
  44. magniloquent
  45. malefic
  46. maleficent
  47. malicious
  48. malign
  49. malignant
  50. mean
  51. nasty
  52. noxious
  53. obstreperous
  54. oratorical
  55. orotund
  56. paltry
  57. perverse
  58. plangent
  59. poor
  60. recalcitrant
  61. refractory
  62. resounding
  63. restive
  64. ringing
  65. rotund
  66. round
  67. rubbishy
  68. shoddy
  69. sleazy
  70. snappish
  71. sonorous
  72. spiteful
  73. spleeny
  74. splenetic
  75. stentorian
  76. stuffy
  77. sulky
  78. sullen
  79. tatty
  80. testy
  81. ugly
  82. unruly
  83. vibrant
  84. vinegarish
  85. vinegary
  86. waspish
  87. wayward
  88. wicked
  89. wild
  90. wrongheaded

equivalents (1)

Other words for 'ornery'

  1. ill-natured

same context (26)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. acerbic
  2. bullheaded
  3. cantankerous
  4. cranky
  5. crossgrained
  6. crotchety
  7. curus
  8. doggone
  9. flea-bitten
  10. flirtatious
  11. fourfooted
  12. hard-hearted
  13. ill-mannered
  14. knock-kneed
  15. leetle
  16. mas'r
  17. meanspirited
  18. measly
  19. muley
  20. murderin'
  21. opinionated
  22. passive-aggressive
  23. pesky
  24. smelly
  25. surly
  26. two-timing

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