bad-tempered
Quick to snap
Bad-tempered describes someone who is easily annoyed, irritable, or prone to anger.
A bad-tempered person tends to react with hostility or impatience to minor frustrations that others might shrug off.
The term applies to both temporary states and enduring personality traits: She's always bad-tempered before her morning coffee versus He's a bad-tempered old man who yells at everyone.
The hyphenated form functions as a compound adjective.
Ill-tempered and peevish
- grouchyEasily annoyed, ill-tempered
- crabbyIll-tempered, easily annoyed
- testyShort-tempered, easily provoked
- touchyEasily upset or offended
petulant · snappish · irascible · cross · fussy · querulous · fractious · tetchy
cranky
Ill-tempered and peevish
- grouchyEasily annoyed, ill-tempered
- crabbyIll-tempered, easily annoyed
- testyShort-tempered, easily provoked
touchy · petulant · snappish · irascible · cross · fussy · querulous · fractious · tetchy · impatient
morose
Sullenly ill-humored
churlish · dour · brooding · glum · sour · bearish · curmudgeonly · cantankerous · crotchety · disagreeable
hot-headed
Prone to sudden anger
- explosiveProne to sudden detonation
- fieryIntensely hot or passionate
- tempestuousWildly agitated or volatile
mercurial · irascible · choleric · splenetic · bilious · stormy · hotheaded · incensed · wrathful · rageful
- hyphenated wordsup-to-date, pitch-black, jaw-dropping, round-the-clock, air-conditioned
- irritabilitycranky, grouchy, grumpy, irritated, annoyed
bad-temperedgood-tempered
Consistently pleasant in disposition
good-natured · good-humored · even-tempered · good-humoured · easygoing
temper, temperate, peevish, temperament, tempered, hot-tempered, ill-tempered, short-tempered, quick-tempered