The AI-powered English dictionary
comparative grouchier, superlative grouchiest
(originally university slang) Irritable; easily upset; angry; tending to complain. quotations
Not that young Pat had a nasty temper, or was grouchy as his father had feared.
1911, Jack London, chapter III, in The Abysmal Brute
He went in to mumble that he was "sorry, didn't mean to be grouchy," and to inquire as to her interest in movies.
1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXXI, in Babbitt
In Berlin I once heard Susie Clemens—ill-fated, talented girl, who died so young—say to her father: "Grouchy again! They do say that you can be funny when company is around—too bad that you don't consider Henry Fisher company."
1922, Henry William Fischer, “Author's Preface”, in Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field