ill-humoured

/'il'hju:məd/

Học thuật

Thân thiện

The old man gave an ill-humoured reply to the cheerful greeting.

Definition

Adjective:
- Having a bad temper or mood; irritable and unfriendly: Describes a person who is easily annoyed, often showing their displeasure through brusque, surly, or forbidding behavior.

Usage

The adjective "ill-humoured" is used to describe a person's temporary or characteristic mood and disposition. It implies a negative, cross, or sullen attitude that is often evident in one's manner or speech.
It is typically used attributively (before a noun) or predicatively (after a linking verb like 'be', 'seem', 'become').

Examples

Attributive use:
- The ill-humoured shopkeeper scared away potential customers.
- We tried to avoid his ill-humoured rants in the morning.
Predicative use:
- She became quite ill-humoured after waiting for an hour.
- The manager is often ill-humoured when under pressure.

Advanced Usage

"to be in an ill-humoured mood": To be in a state of irritability.
- He's been in an ill-humoured mood all week.
Describing a general atmosphere or tone:
- The meeting concluded in an ill-humoured silence.

Variants and Related Words

Ill-humouredly (adverb): In an ill-humoured manner.
- He replied ill-humouredly to the simple question.
Ill humour (noun, chiefly British English): A state of being irritable or in a bad mood.
- His constant ill humour made the office tense.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related Idioms and Phrases

"To have a face like thunder": To look very angry (related to the appearance of an ill-humoured person).
- He walked in with a face like thunder, clearly ill-humoured.
"To be out of sorts": To be slightly unwell or in a bad mood (a milder, more temporary state).
- Don't mind him; he's just out of sorts and feeling ill-humoured today.

The old man gave an ill-humoured reply to the cheerful greeting.

Adjective

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