Adjacent Words

Churlish definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CHURLISH, a.
1. Rude; surly; austere; sullen; rough in temper; unfeeling; uncivil.
2. Selfish; narrow-minded; avaricious.
3. [Of things.] Unpliant; unyielding; cross-grained; harsh; unmanageable; as churlish metal.
4. Hard; firm; as a churlish knot.
5. Obstinate; as a churlish war.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: rude and boorish
2: having a bad disposition; surly; "churlish as a bear"- Shakespeare

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: before 12th century 1. of, resembling, or characteristic of a churl ; vulgar 2. marked by a lack of civility or graciousness ; surly 3. difficult to work with or deal with ; intractable <churlish soil> Synonyms: see boorish • churlishly adverb • churlishness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. surly; mean. Derivatives: churlishly adv. churlishness n. Etymology: OE cierlisc, ceorlisc f. ceorl CHURL

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Churlish Churl"ish, a. 1. Like a churl; rude; cross-grained; ungracious; surly; illiberal; niggardly. ``Churlish benefits.'' --Ld. Burleigh. Half mankind maintain a churlish strife. --Cowper. 2. Wanting pliancy; unmanageable; unyielding; not easily wrought; as, a churlish soil; the churlish and intractable nature of some minerals. --Boyle.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Someone who is churlish is unfriendly, bad-tempered, or impolite. She would think him churlish if he refused... The room was so lovely it seemed churlish to argue. ADJ: oft it v-link ADJ to-inf [disapproval]

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Rude, harsh, brusque, uncivil, impolite, rough, brutish, surly, cynical, snarling, snappish, waspish. 2. Crabbed, morose, sullen, ill-tempered. 3. Niggardly, miserly, close, close-fisted, sordid, penurious, stingy, mean, illiberal.

Moby Thesaurus

abrupt, aggressive, bearish, beastly, bitchy, bluff, blunt, boorish, brash, brusque, cankered, cantankerous, carlish, cavalier, cloddish, clodhopping, clownish, coarse, countrified, country-born, country-bred, crabbed, cranky, cross, cross-grained, crude, crusty, curt, cussed, disagreeable, discourteous, dour, excitable, farmerish, feisty, fractious, from the sticks, gruff, harsh, hayseed, hick, hicky, hobnailed, hooliganish, huffish, huffy, inurbane, irascible, irritable, loobyish, loutish, lowbred, lubberly, lumpen, lumpish, mean, naive, ornery, perverse, raffish, rough, roughneck, rowdy, rowdyish, rube, ruffianly, severe, sharp, short, snappish, snippy, spiteful, spleeny, splenetic, surly, testy, truculent, ugly, uncivilized, uncouth, uncultivated, uncultured, unpolished, unrefined, unschooled, up-country, waspish, yokel, yokelish