Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Chiefly British Easily offended or annoyed; ill-tempered or belligerent.
Wiktionary
- adj. UK, Australia, New Zealand, slang Ornery, fractious, belligerent, or obstreperous, and hence difficult to deal with.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. obstreperous.
Etymologies
- From obstropulous, obsolete slang for obstreperous. (Wiktionary)
- Perhaps alteration of obstreperous. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And getting stroppy is not going to work. on January 16, 2008 at 10: 10 am | Reply plod999”
“When I mentioned it, Cheryl got kind of stroppy, and moved us to another room which was like a coffee room or a public library - people everywhere!!!”
“Personally I would rather be termed offensive, rude or crass than "stroppy".”
“She also argued that descriptions of her as "stroppy" reflected a double standard in the treatment of male and female politicians.”
“Ms Smith did say, however, that she had been annoyed by being described as "stroppy" on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, adding she had never heard a man described as that.”
“Talking to the Evening Standard, Sally Bercow, 40, admitted drinking to excess most evenings, engaging in one-night stands and being "stroppy".”
“perhaps they should have sister establishment in Edinburgh called 'stroppy'!”
“The only course of action that I can see is for the parent to be able to impose their will on the stroppy teenager without fear of prosecution.”
“Incidentally the next time you have a stroppy patient who tries to stab you with your own scissors just get on with it, remember your softly, softly approach would apply to the police who would attend to resolve your problems in A+E.”
London G20 Police outnumbered and attacked « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“A stroppy and stupid client, of whom the translation business has no shortage, might complain not only that it was inaccurate but that the translator had misread the ‘decenas’ as ‘docenas’.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘stroppy’.
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UK - slang
fanny, nick, mufti, siphon, mug, smashing, butcher, stick up, knocker, porridge, tit, punter and 208 more...
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gangster
random gangster lingo and street slang with extra absurdities.
( open list, randomness )
related:
http://www....swagga, chinga, slams, blitzy, earf, manor, code name, rekkid, weight, feather, kong, swisher and 323 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Awkward-Sounding Words
smock, awkward, specificity, hobbledehoy, kitthoge, stroppy, loobily, ambisinistrous, botcherly, tintinnabulation, megalophonous, bosthoon and 7 more...
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British English that's not in America...
British English that's not in American English
dummy, ta, answerphone, first fifteen soccer, first eleven cricket, shirty, fag, Black Monday, filter coffee, woolyback, motoring, loo and 20 more...
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crime slang
slang terms for crimes, also words associated with shady behaviour
phony paper passin, stroppy, situation, clip, flip, artform, volatile, teleport, squee, futz, fizzog, hotch up and 23 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Words I like
This is a list of my favourite words (phrases) in english, as a second language. I love them mostly because of how they sound and their meaning.
ninja, cookie, skill, zip, plentiful, digg, debris, pancake, cucumber, fetch, pot, backpack and 461 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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tranquill's Words
loquacious, unmitigated, trundle, ephemeral, vociferous, trapezoidal, liminal, obsequious, veracity, squash, onomatopoeia, oscillate and 267 more...
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Ptolemy's Gate
Words and phrases from Jonathan Stroud's book, Ptolemy's Gate.
fall afoul, fleet, tamarisk, krait, inkstone, hotted up, down-market, have a truck with, brio, fatalistic, knock-kneed, conserve and 210 more...
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British Cant & Slang, Old & New
Mostly, the cant words come from my reprint of Francis Grose's 1785 dictionary of 'The Vulgar Tongue', while the more modern slang has been found at various online sources, e.g. this online diction...
bog-standard, bumbaclot, brown trouser moment, bingo wings, bobfoc, babber, sweating, tantadlin tart, taplash, timber toe, tray trip, twiddle-diddles and 209 more...
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conglomeration
wherewithal, wan, zoonotic, zoonosis, nebulous, nefarious, nascent, quiescent, quell, undercroft, unwitting, unutterable and 658 more...
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The Motherland! (God Bless the Queen)
Words that remind me of England, which I miss very much.
snog, nappy, wanker, telly, knickers, crumpet, pants, bum, loo, bollocks, stroppy, whinge and 108 more...
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Maughamish
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1689 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for stroppy.

trivet Excellent word! I especially like the phrase "get all stroppy." Feb 22, 2007