Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar.
  • adjective Having a bad disposition; surly.
  • adjective Difficult to work with, such as soil; intractable.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Like or pertaining to a churl. Rude; ill-bred; surly; austere; sullen; rough in temper; uncivil.
  • Selfish; narrow-minded; avaricious; niggardly.
  • Hence Of things, unpliant; unyielding; unmanageable.
  • Synonyms Clownish, Loutish, etc. See boorish.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Like a churl; rude; cross-grained; ungracious; surly; illiberal; niggardly.
  • adjective Wanting pliancy; unmanageable; unyielding; not easily wrought.

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

  • adjective of or pertaining to a serf, peasant, or rustic
  • adjective rude, surly, ungracious
  • adjective stingy or grudging
  • adjective of soil difficult to till, lacking pliancy; unmanageable

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having a bad disposition; surly
  • adjective rude and boorish

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From late Old English cierlisc ("of or pertaining to churls"), from churl +‎ -ish. Meaning "deliberately rude" is late 14c.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Under Worcester the Severn, grown churlish, reflects

    the Cathedral shattered today...

    - Peter Reading, Severn at Worcester, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974

    June 22, 2008

  • Pippin was this in "Fate And The High King's Falcon" when Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn were taking care of him after he'd been nearly crushed by a troll.

    June 9, 2012

  • "... and appears on 209 lists" Really?

    May 17, 2015