cantankerous
can·tan·ke·rous
adjective
1.
stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate
- “unions...have never been as bloody-minded about demarcation as the shipbuilders” Spectator
2.
having a difficult and contrary disposition
- “a cantankerous and venomous-tongued old lady” Dorothy Sayers
Origin
Perhaps derived from earlier contenkerous, from contentious + rancorous.
Related words
Word family
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.