noun
a bad-tempered or surly person.
DERIVATIVES
curmudgeonliness noun
curmudgeonly |kərˈmədʒənli| adjective
ORIGIN late 16th cent.: of unknown origin
I think I may be becoming one of those. The blasted bank pin card reader died on me so I had to phone the bank on an 0845 number to order a new one; four minutes of recorded announcements on a call you're paying for before you're given the option of keying in any choices. And they put the phone down on me the first time, so I called a second time and went through all the security james bond stuff but got the mother maiden name wrong (of course I don't use my mum's real maiden name, since you ask), quickly straight away said the right word but they said I only had one chance. So, there was a third call.....