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Surliness   Listen
noun
Surliness  n.  The quality or state of being surly.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Surliness" Quotes from Famous Books



... pale they meet; their eyes with fury burn; 190 None greets; for none the greeting will return: But in dumb surliness, each arm'd with care His foe profess'd, as brother of the war: Then both, no moment lost, at once advance Against each other, arm'd with sword and lance: They lash, they foin, they pass, they strive to bore Their corslets and the thinnest parts explore. Thus two long hours in equal arms they ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol II - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden

... Islington road. The New Gate was shut by the time they reached it, and their explanation that they were belated after a nutting expedition would not have served them, had not Stephen produced the sum of twopence which softened the surliness of ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... liked the French, he always gave the pirates of that nationality the credit for most of the bravery displayed on their expeditions, and all of the magnanimity and courtesy, if there happened to be any, while the surliness, brutality, and extraordinary wickednesses were all ascribed to the English. But be this as it may, Esquemeling's history was a great success. It was written in Dutch and was afterwards translated into English, French, and Spanish. It contained a great deal of information ...
— Buccaneers and Pirates of Our Coasts • Frank Richard Stockton

... Jonson was of a difficult and jealous temper, and subsequently he gave vent to an occasional expression of scorn at Shakespeare's expense, but, despite passing manifestations of his unconquerable surliness, there can be no doubt that Jonson cherished genuine esteem and affection for Shakespeare till death. {176b} Within a very few years of Shakespeare's death Sir Nicholas L'Estrange, an industrious collector of anecdotes, put into writing an anecdote for which he made Dr. Donne ...
— A Life of William Shakespeare - with portraits and facsimiles • Sidney Lee

... Watusk must have thought better of his surliness for he sent a polite message to Ambrose at Simon Grampierre's house, requesting him and Simon to come to a ...
— The Fur Bringers - A Story of the Canadian Northwest • Hulbert Footner

... committing that murder for which he died. Though, when sober, he might have wisdom enough to conceal his resentment, yet when the fumes of wine had clouded his reason, he (as it is no uncommon case) gave vent to his passion, and treated with undistinguished surliness all who came in ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward

... morning and the surliness of the postman gradually infected the student. He looked apathetically at the country around him, waited for the warmth of the sun, and thought of nothing but how dreadful and horrible it must be for the poor trees and the grass to endure ...
— The Witch and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... unforeseen spell of fierce weather. The storm had come on suddenly, and provender was low; so Peter had volunteered his services in his characteristically shy way (which a southron, perhaps, would have taken for an indication of surliness), and his sister, in equally characteristic Scottish fashion, had accepted the offer with the air of one who had a right to it. Yet all the while (I am sure, for I know the type well!) Peter was full of tender compassion for the poor beast, and Maggie Jean's heart overflowed with solicitude ...
— Up in Ardmuirland • Michael Barrett

... and courteous order of Rienzi's guard, fell back too slowly for many of them to escape severe injury from the pikes of the soldiers and the hoofs of the horses. Our friend, Luigi, the butcher, was one of these, and the surliness of the Roman blood was past boiling heat when he received in his ample stomach the blunt end of a German's pike. "There, Roman," said the rude mercenary, in his barbarous attempt at Italian, "make way for your betters; you have ...
— Rienzi • Edward Bulwer Lytton

... own; but it is somewhat surprising, how he becomes so well informed of the actual state of things, and of the feelings and opinions of both parties in our country. His acuteness, his wit, his logic, and his surliness, form, altogether, a curious portraiture of an English politician. We, now and then, get sight of American papers; but they are almost all of them federal papers, and contain matter more hostile to our government than ...
— A Journal of a Young Man of Massachusetts, 2nd ed. • Benjamin Waterhouse

... considerable pause to ensue before she went to the inevitable attack. Somehow, notwithstanding his surliness, she had not the faintest ...
— The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories • Ethel M. Dell



Words linked to "Surliness" :   irritability, temper, ill nature, biliousness, peevishness



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