1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. curmudgeon

Find the word definition

What is "curmudgeon"

Crossword clues for curmudgeon

curmudgeon
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
curmudgeon
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ For about the hundredth time, I cursed whatever kleptomaniac curmudgeon had walked off the train with my bag.
▪ Sinclair, a curmudgeon of taste and integrity, defends the river against the shoddy plans of the Chamber of Commerce.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon \Cur*mudg"eon\ (k?r-m?j"?n), n. [OE. cornmudgin, where -mudgin is prob. from OF. muchier, mucier, F. musser to hide; of uncertain origin; cf. OE. muchares skulking thieves, E. miche, micher.] An avaricious, grasping fellow; a miser; a niggard; a churl.

A gray-headed curmudgeon of a negro.
--W. Irving.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
curmudgeon

1570s, of unknown origin; the suggestion, based on a misreading of a garbled note from Johnson, that it is from French coeur mechant "evil heart" is not taken seriously; the first syllable may be cur "dog." Liberman says the word "must have been borrowed from Gaelic (and references muigean "disagreeable person"), with variant spelling of intensive prefix ker-. Related: Curmudgeonly.

Wiktionary
curmudgeon

n. 1 (context archaic English) A miser. 2 An ill-tempered (and frequently old) person full of stubborn ideas or opinions.

WordNet
curmudgeon

n. a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas

Wikipedia
Curmudgeon

Curmudgeon may refer to:

  • Dyskolos, sometimes translated The Curmudgeon, an ancient Greek comic play by Menander

Usage examples of "curmudgeon".

Tell Fracto to get lost and take his friend Curmudgeon Cloud with him!

He was sharply observational but generally nonconfrontational -- his material the sort that would label him a junior curmudgeon but not seriously controversial.

I wonder if their work makes them curmudgeons, or if curmudgeonliness is a qualification for the job?

Any culture which fails to uphold the rights of curmudgeons, no matter how inconvenient, no matter how tempting it is to cut corners `this once,' degenerates until no one has any rights, not even nice people.

So many of his archetypes were curmudgeons, or at least he imagined them that way.

Dan Needham lived in Water-house Hall, so named for some deceased curmudgeon of a classicist, a Latin teacher named Amos Waterhouse, whose rendering of Christmas carols in Latin-I was sure-could not have been worse than the gloomy muddle made of them by Dan and Owen Meany.

There were some old curmudgeons on the faculty-and some young fuddy-duddies, too-who objected to Owen's style.

Oh, he had the reputation for being a curmudgeon, and he didn't suffer fools gladly, and often he seemed to have no tolerance for people at all.