Crab"bed (kr?b"b?d), a. [See Crab,n.]

1.

Characterized by or manifesting, sourness, peevishness, or moroseness; harsh; cross; cynical; -- applied to feelings, disposition, or manners.

Crabbed age and youth can not live together. Shak.

2.

Characterized by harshness or roughness; unpleasant; -- applied to things; as, a crabbed taste.

3.

Obscure; difficult; perplexing; trying; as, a crabbed author.

"Crabbed eloquence."

Chaucer.

How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose. Milton.

4.

Cramped; irregular; as, crabbed handwriting.

-- Crab"bed*ly, adv. -- Crab"bed*ness, n.

 

© Webster 1913.