Need another word that means the same as “surly”? Find 38 synonyms and 30 related words for “surly” in this overview.
The synonyms of “Surly” are: ugly, bad-tempered, ill-natured, grumpy, glum, crotchety, prickly, cantankerous, irascible, testy, ill-tempered, short-tempered, ungracious, splenetic, choleric, dyspeptic, bilious, crusty, abrupt, brusque, curt, gruff, blunt, churlish, ill-humoured, crabbed, crabby, uncivil, morose, dour, sullen, sulky, moody, sour, unfriendly, unpleasant, scowling, unsmiling
According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, “surly” as an adjective can have the following definitions:
abrupt | Sudden and unexpected. Came to an abrupt stop. |
bad-tempered | Annoyed and irritable. |
bilious | Affected by or associated with nausea or vomiting. A bilious yellow hue. |
blunt | Devoid of any qualifications or disguise or adornment. The blunt truth. |
brusque | Abrupt or offhand in speech or manner. She could be brusque and impatient. |
cantankerous | Bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative. He can be a cantankerous old fossil at times. |
choleric | Easily moved to anger- H.G.Wells. Men of the choleric type take to kicking and smashing. |
churlish | Rude and boorish. It seems churlish to complain. |
crabbed | (of handwriting) very small and difficult to decipher. A crabbed unhappy middle age. |
crabby | Irritable. He was crabby at having his siesta interrupted. |
crotchety | Irritable. He was tired and crotchety. |
crusty | Having or acting as a hard outer layer or covering. Crusty remarks. |
curt | Marked by rude or peremptory shortness. A response so curt as to be almost rude. |
dour | Harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance- J.M.Barrie. The proverbially dour New England Puritan. |
dyspeptic | Suffering from dyspepsia. |
glum | Showing a brooding ill humor- Bruce Bli. The princess looked glum but later cheered up. |
gruff | Abrupt or taciturn in manner. Gruff voices. |
grumpy | Bad-tempered and irritable. He s grumpy because he hasn t heard from you. |
ill-humoured | Brusque and surly and forbidding. |
ill-natured | Having an irritable and unpleasant disposition. |
ill-tempered | Annoyed and irritable. |
irascible | Having or showing a tendency to be easily angered. An irascible response. |
moody | Giving an impression of melancholy or mystery. He sat in moody silence. |
morose | Sullen and ill-tempered. She was morose and silent when she got home. |
prickly | Having or causing a tingling or itching sensation. His hair was prickly and short. |
scowling | Sullen or unfriendly in appearance. |
short-tempered | Quickly aroused to anger. |
sour | Having a rancid smell. The kitchen smelled of sour milk. |
splenetic | Very irritable. A splenetic rant. |
sulky | Depressingly dark. Disappointment was making her sulky. |
sullen | Darkened by clouds. A sullen sunless sky. |
testy | Easily irritated; impatient and somewhat bad-tempered. She could see him growing quite testy beneath that polished urbanity. |
uncivil | Lacking civility or good manners- Willa Cather. He d been short and uncivil with her. |
unfriendly | Not friendly. She shot him an unfriendly glance. |
ungracious | Lacking social graces. Ungracious behavior. |
unpleasant | (of a person or their manner) unfriendly and inconsiderate; rude. The symptoms are extremely unpleasant. |
unsmiling | (of a person or their manner or expression) serious or unfriendly; not smiling. A large unsmiling woman. |
abusive | Involving injustice or illegality. He became quite abusive and swore at her. |
blunt | Make dull or blunt. A blunt statement of fact. |
boor | A rough and bad-mannered person. At last the big obnoxious boor had been dealt a stunning blow for his uncouth and belligerent manner. |
boorish | Ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance. Boorish behaviour. |
brat | A child, typically one that is badly behaved. She s been acting like a spoiled brat all evening. |
brusqueness | An abrupt discourteous manner. |
churl | A peasant. This trio are used whenever some churl wants to have a pop at progressive rock. |
churlish | Having a bad disposition; surly. Churlish as a bear. |
coarse | Relating to the sport of angling for coarse fish. His coarse ugly features contorted with rage. |
curt | Rudely brief. A curt reply. |
discourteous | Showing no courtesy; rude. A distant and at times discourteous young. |
dismissive | Feeling or showing that something is unworthy of consideration. They took dismissive action after the third violation. |
disposition | The action of arranging people or things in a particular way. If Napoleon had had railways at his disposition he would have been invincible. |
flippancy | Inappropriate levity. She was infuriated by his careless flippancy. |
flippant | Not showing a serious or respectful attitude. A flippant remark. |
frivolity | The trait of being frivolous; not serious or sensible. A night of fun and frivolity. |
frivolousness | The trait of being frivolous; not serious or sensible. |
grouch | Show one’s unhappiness or critical attitude. My only real grouch was that the children s chorus was less easy on the ear. |
impolite | Not polite. It would have been impolite to refuse. |
manner | A semantic category of adverbs and adverbials which answer the question ‘how. Her dignified manner. |
niggard | Ungenerous niggardly. |
oafish | Rough or clumsy and unintelligent. Oafish behaviour. |
pejorative | Expressing disapproval. Permissiveness is used almost universally as a pejorative term. |
rude | Belonging to an early stage of technical development characterized by simplicity and often crudeness. The crude weapons and rude agricultural implements of early man. |
rudely | In an impolite manner. He rudely snatched the water pitcher. |
uncouth | (of art or language) lacking sophistication or delicacy. His uncouth cell in Fleet prison. |
uncultivated | (of land) not used for growing crops. Uncultivated land. |
unrefined | Not refined; uncouth. Unrefined sugar. |
villain | A wicked or evil person; someone who does evil deliberately. A pantomime villain. |
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