Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Sulky or whining.
  • adjective Non-co-operative, bad tempered or terse in communication.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Probably from marred +‎ -y.

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Examples

  • Apart from being premenstrual, the mardy is mostly due to the fact that I feel like I have failed to achieve very much in my life.

    March 28th, 2008 kisobel 2008

  • I'd already told her about "mardy", which she really liked and started to employ at every opportunity.

    townx - Comments 2010

  • I'd already told her about "mardy", which she really liked and started to employ at every opportunity.

    townx - Comments 2009

  • He then threw a mardy - as we say around here - and went off in a sulk claiming he had better things to do than post on the BBC blog.

    Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister? 2010

  • He then threw a mardy - as we say around here - and went off in a sulk claiming he had better things to do than post on the BBC blog.

    Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister? 2010

  • Paul came home this evening and said "You're horny ... and mardy ... you must be due on," which of course is absolutely right.

    March 28th, 2008 kisobel 2008

  • Arctic Monkeys are a quintessentially British band, with songs infused with British slang, such as references to a "mardy bum" (a whiner) and the "icky man" (an ice-cream vendor).

    Monkey Business 2009

  • Following the complaint made against real Madrid for tapping-up the cheating acquitted date-rapist Ronaldo, one-man strop factory Ferguson has decided to sue Gordon Strachan for “Being Scottish, a football manager and a mardy bugger.”

    Archive 2008-06-01 Push Jelly 2008

  • Following the complaint made against real Madrid for tapping-up the cheating acquitted date-rapist Ronaldo, one-man strop factory Ferguson has decided to sue Gordon Strachan for “Being Scottish, a football manager and a mardy bugger.”

    News Round Up Push Jelly 2008

  • During Celebrity Big Brother Jo has changed from a mardy old sourballs to a mardy old sourballs with a nifty side-career as a sneering racist sidekick.

    Big Brother Betting Odds: Jade Goody? Really? 2007

Comments

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  • adj. disgruntled, foul-tempered, stroppy, recalcitrant, obstreporous, cantankerous.

    More commonly applied to females than males in my experience, particularly modifying cow.

    e.g. "My boss has been a right mardy cow this week, I don't know what her problem is."

    December 16, 2008

  • also appears in the construction mardy-arse(d) (not to be confused with mardi gras)

    December 16, 2008

  • Yes, adding "-arse(d)" to an adjective (usually ending in 'y' and with negative connotations) is a common construction which seems to be nothing but a linguistic tic; at least I don't think it alters the intensity of the adjective.

    Adjectives commonly modified thus: lazy, scruffy, hairy.

    December 16, 2008

  • Obstreperous, surely?

    December 16, 2008

  • Of course ;)

    Although 6 wordies list obstreporous.

    December 16, 2008

  • I have it on good authority that yarb is a mardy-arsed cow.

    December 16, 2008

  • *suddenly understands c_b's comment*

    December 16, 2008

  • mardy-arse n. derogatory a spoilt, pampered, or cowardly person.

    1977 Jrnl. Lancs. Dial. Soc. Dec. 16/1 Mardy-arse, spoilt child.

    1990 Sunday Correspondent 8 Apr. 18/4 Some probably feared being labelled ‘mardy arses’—Mancunian for softies.

    April 19, 2015

  • Mardybum is another variant. Popularized by the Arctic Monkeys song, which is gash.

    January 31, 2020