ill-natured
- adjective
- /ˌɪlˈneɪtʃərd/
- She was so ill-natured that even a small mistake annoyed her greatly.
Examples
-
His ill-natured remarks made it impossible for anyone to enjoy the party.
-
At the first performance, his ill-natured colleague Erik Satie went up to the composer and said: "I particularly liked the passage around half past eleven."
Academic text (1996) -
Both the extremes of silly smiles and melancholy or ill-natured expressions were to be avoided, as well as all unnatural distortions of the face.
Academic text (1996) -
After a long day, I became ill-natured and snapped at my friends.
Synonyms
Unkind and cruel toward other people
Not nice and causing discomfort or unhappiness
Showing strong dislike or opposition
Not friendly or caring to other people
Not kind or warm to other people
Being bad-tempered and stubborn, often hard to deal with
Quick to get angry or easily annoyed
Easily annoyed and quick to get angry
Quick to get angry or annoyed
Being often in a bad mood and unfriendly
Unkind and petty in a way that hurts other people
Antonyms
How Good-Natured
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Ill-natured comes from the parts ill and nature. Here ill means 'bad' rather than 'sick', and nature means 'character', so an ill-natured person has a 'bad character' and is often unpleasant or easily annoyed.