crossness
- noun
- /ˈkrɔs.nəs/
- I could feel her crossness rising as she waited in the long line at the store.
Examples
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My good man, I know that, but a little kraut crossness won't stop me now.
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So much so, I blamed my husband in the ensuing phone call to the mattress company, and with lots of eye rolling and pretend-crossness at his incompetence (sorry babe), I convinced them to exchange it for the correct size.
Blog text (19) -
A certain crossness—and he said, "All right, all right; can it; Jesus!"—and she said, "You don't have to become insulting," and he said, "How was I?"—and she said, "Just now, in what you said; another example of what I meant about the bad feelings coming from you," and he said, "I'm sorry then."
Fiction book (1997) -
She often takes her crossness out on her family when she's tired and stressed.
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His crossness was evident when he snapped at everyone during the meeting.
Synonyms
Being easily annoyed or quick to become angry
Being easily annoyed and acting childish
Being easily annoyed and acting in odd, fussy ways
A tendency to become easily annoyed and impatient
A mood of being easily annoyed and bad-tempered
A state of being easily annoyed and in a bad mood
A state of being easily upset or hard to please
A tendency to become angry quickly
Often being bad-tempered and hard to please
A feeling of being nervous, annoyed, or easily upset
A tendency to become angry easily
Antonyms
How Annoyed
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word crossness comes from the familiar adjective cross, which means 'angry' or 'annoyed'. Think of someone with a 'cross' face giving short answers, and crossness is that mood of being easily annoyed.