Definition of "crabbed" [crab•bed]

• Irritable and perverse in disposition; ill-tempered. (adjective)
• Difficult to understand; complicated. (adjective)
• Difficult to read; cramped: crabbed handwriting. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The word crabbed has appeared in three New York Times articles in the past year, including on Feb. 23 in the theater review "The Boarders Put the Polish on Eccentric," by Charles Isherwood:"
• "And then I wanted some day to take your children on my knee and hear them call the crabbed old monk Uncle Kieth.”"
• "And then I wanted some day to take your children on my knee and hear them call the crabbed old monk Uncle Kieth. ""