surly.

Unfriendly and resentful in manner or speech.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• surly reply
• surly manner

On the page

The porter gave a surly reply without looking up.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Comparative more surly; superlative most surly when comparison is meaningful. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: character, description. Commonness: moderately common.