crabbily
- adverb
- /ˈkræbɪli/
:
de mal humor
- She answered the question crabbily, not wanting to be disturbed during her work.
Examples
-
Their conversation had moved crabbily from one topic to another.
Fiction book (1995) -
He crabbily complained about the weather, grumbling that it was too cold to go outside.
-
After a long day at the office, she spoke crabbily to her coworkers, ignoring their friendly greetings.
Synonyms
8
4.1
In an annoyed or impatient way
2
8.1
In a childish, annoyed way that shows impatience
1
3.0
In a bad mood and speaking or acting in an unhappy way
1
9.5
In a rude or unfriendly way
In a bad-tempered, easily annoyed way
In a bad mood and complaining
In an easily annoyed way
In an angry, sharp way that shows someone is annoyed
In an angry way that shows someone gets annoyed easily
To act quietly because you feel angry or sad
In a mean, unkind way that aims to hurt someone
Someone moves or acts in a rough, clumsy way
Antonyms
How Irritable
Surface Forms
Morphology
crabbily = crabby (transparent) = crab + ily
The adverb 'crabbily' is transparently derived from the adjective 'crabby' by adding the adverbial suffix '-ly'.
Etymology
Crabbily comes from crab, the animal that looks 'grumpy' and the adjective crabby, which people used to mean 'irritable'. So to act crabbily is to be in a bad mood and quick to complain, like a crab ready to snap.