cantankerous

adj

Etymology: Perhaps derived from earlier contenkerous, from contentious + rancorous.

1. Given to or marked by an ill-tempered, quarrelsome nature; ill-tempered, cranky, crabby.

   “"She is a cantankerous old maid," added another, whom I recognised, by his voice, as a man whose attentions I had put a determined check to not six weeks before: "she is a cantankerous old maid, fretting and snarling over the loss of her beauty."”

   “Murphy's Law never proved itself more accurate than at the Nov. 18 film benefit for Persephone Press. With problems ranging from a cantankerous projector to blown fuses, the presentations of Jan Oxenberg's films were blurred, disrupted and played with lapses in their soundtracks.”