Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Athwart; so as to intersect something else.
  • Adversely; in opposition; contrarily.
  • Peevishly; fretfully.

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

  • adverb Athwart; adversely; unfortunately; peevishly; fretfully; with ill humor.

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

  • adverb In a cross manner.

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

  • adverb in an ill-natured manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cross +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • She snapped the word crossly, angry with herself for letting emotion show.

    Bush Doctor's Bride Lennox, Marion 1996

  • There was a knock at the door, but Peace was frantically tugging at the big kettle stuck fast to the stove cover, and without pausing in her task, she called crossly, "You will have to wait till we can get this rice 'tended to before we can see what you want, whoever you are.

    At the Little Brown House Ruth Alberta Brown

  • "Very well," crossly, "don't believe it then; only don't ask questions another time if you mean to turn round and sneer when a fellow tries to explain.

    Kitty Trenire Mabel Quiller-Couch 1895

  • But I think I will give up, crossly, and go look in John Lewis.

    Jean's Knitting Jean 2009

  • But she maintained her connection with Oxford (she had been made senior research fellow of Somerville in 1969), and once, when asked by US immigration where she lived, answered crossly, "England, of course," only escaping the resultant fracas when her lawyer proclaimed her "not only one of the world's greatest moral philosophers but the granddaughter of President Cleveland".

    Philippa Foot obituary Jane O'Grady 2010

  • But in another portrait we see her looking intensely herself, her buoyant, pretty, youthful self "very sexy", Manning used to say crossly as she sits behind a table full of hyacinths that we know she has grown from bulb, for they are all shapes and sizes, not florist-bought.

    Portraits of the artists 2011

  • I pressed the button, and this happened!" said Ava crossly."

    The Tick-tock Box short story competition runners-up 2011

  • But I think I will give up, crossly, and go look in John Lewis.

    Archive 2009-04-01 Jean 2009

  • Charles Darwin complained quite crossly in his autobiography that, despite many denials, people still kept saying he thought natural selection was the sole cause of evolutionary development.

    A valuable onslaught on neo-Darwinist simplicities « Anglican Samizdat 2010

  • "I want that off!" he says crossly, pointing to his leading rein.

    Horse riding in Ashdown Forest 2011

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