stroppy
/ˈstrɒpi
/adjective (stroppier, stroppiest) British informal
Bad-tempered and argumentative: Patricia was getting stroppy...
- Watch out for irritability, being more stroppy with other people and not sleeping very well.
- ‘Hawick people are very stroppy,’ says Barnes.
- Every time I had some form of prize or something he really got very stroppy about it.
Synonyms
bad-tempered, ill-tempered, irritable, grumpy, cantankerous, truculent, sulky, sullen, awkward, uncooperative, unhelpful, recalcitrant, refractory, difficult, perverse, contrary, confrontational, argumentative, quarrelsome, obstreperous, choleric;
Scottish thrawn
informal pig-headed, cussed
British informal shirty, ratty, narky, bolshie, bloody-minded
North American informal balky, scrappy
archaic contumacious, froward
rare contrarious
Derivatives
stroppily
- I exclaimed, and flounced stroppily to my desk.
- Unlike other systems that stroppily tell you to make a U-turn, it calmly and almost invisibly replots the route.
- I re-did the vocal a week later, if only to make a point of starting as stroppily as I intended to continue.
stroppiness
- The pressure of the festive season, combined with raging hormones, has raised my reputation for stroppiness to an unprecedented high.
- A pantomime of stroppiness ensued, complete with petted lip.
- Days later the Scotsman took a pot shot at Sands' stroppiness while attending an awards ceremony.
Origin
1950s: perhaps an abbreviation of obstreperous.