Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having a disagreeable, irritable, or malevolent disposition.
  • adjective Spiteful; nasty.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having a bad nature or character.
  • Having a bad temper; churlish; crabbed; surly; spiteful: as, an ill-natured person.
  • Indicating ill nature.
  • Of uncertain temper; petulant; peevish; intractable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of habitual bad temper; having an unpleasant disposition; surly; disagreeable; cross; peevish; fractious; crabbed; -- of people. Opposite of good-natured.
  • adjective Dictated by, or indicating, ill nature; spiteful.
  • adjective rare Intractable; not yielding to culture.
  • adjective not to one's liking; unpleasant; disagreeable. Opposite of agreeable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective bad-tempered, irritable or malevolent

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having an irritable and unpleasant disposition

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Bailey has made this ill-natured drama look as if it has a heart.

    The Taming of the Shrew; The Trial of Ubu; Our New Girl – review 2012

  • Some ill-natured folks might think that my thesis was undermined by the contests for 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and (until recently) 2011.

    Stromata Blog: 2009

  • You may think me ill-natured, but if you consider how hard it is to swallow an injury done by a person for whom I have such tenderness, you may begin to understand my distress.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • You may think me ill-natured, but if you consider how hard it is to swallow an injury done by a person for whom I have such tenderness, you may begin to understand my distress.

    Exit the Actress Priya Parmar 2011

  • Some ill-natured folks might think that my thesis was undermined by the contests for 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and (until recently) 2011.

    News from the Chicago Bid 2009

  • The brethren of the aggiornamentist - brotherly-love persuasion have once again shown themselves to be thoroughly ill-natured and petty.

    Anglican Use News John 2009

  • The brethren of the aggiornamentist - brotherly-love persuasion have once again shown themselves to be thoroughly ill-natured and petty.

    Solemn High Traditional Mass at St Peter's Basilica - the First in 40 Years John 2009

  • Some have followed the ongoing line of ill-natured attack intending more to be argumentative than contributory to a dialogue.

    Russell Bishop: What We Need Are A Few Good Cynics 2010

  • Some have followed the ongoing line of ill-natured attack intending more to be argumentative than contributory to a dialogue.

    Russell Bishop: What We Need Are A Few Good Cynics 2010

  • “A noisy and ill-natured wrangling, about the designs of the framers or opposers of the constitution, can answer no other purpose than to injure or disgrace us.”

    Robert Morris Charles Rappleye 2010

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