Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having an irregular gnarled grain or fiber, as timber.
- Hence Perverse; untractable; crabbed; refractory.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having the grain or fibers run diagonally, or more or less transversely and irregularly, so as to interfere with splitting or planing.
- adjective Perverse; untractable; contrary; difficult to deal with.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Alternative form of
cross-grained .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective of timber; having fibers running irregularly rather than in parallel
- adjective difficult to deal with
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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What crossgrained fiend has at once inspired you with what I suppose you wish me to call politic doubts and scruples of conscience, but which I can only regard as symptoms of fear and disaffection?
Saint Ronan's Well 2008
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He was, I admit, wild; but never such a crossgrained fellow as yourself; and yet he too had his daily dose of the whip.
Hung Lou Meng 2003
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He was, I admit, wild; but never such a crossgrained fellow as yourself; and yet he too had his daily dose of the whip.
Hung Lou Meng, Book II Or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel in Two Books Xueqin Cao
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In making plywood the inside sheets are placed crossgrained with the face sheets.
The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan W.B. Laughead
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We do not like to see him become crossgrained, mean in disposition and stony hearted.
Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 2 Charles Herbert Sylvester
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I was too ruffled and crossgrained to talk to him, but I could not keep myself from watching him.
Montlivet Alice Prescott Smith
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"I am rather crossgrained when I am not well pleased."
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By rights and logically he ought to fall into rank with the rest of the gods; but there is a crossgrained element in his nature which keeps him out.
Hindu Gods And Heroes Studies in the History of the Religion of India Lionel D. Barnett
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She had an ideal of fatherhood, had gentle, silent, useless Lydia -- formed upon the genial, sunshiny type of parent popular in books, and she cast a romantic veil over disappointed, selfish, crossgrained Malcolm
Martie, the Unconquered Kathleen Thompson Norris 1923
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Does that satisfy you, you crossgrained old shellfish?
Kent Knowles: Quahaug Joseph Crosby Lincoln 1907
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