Definitions

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

  • adjective Snarling and bad-tempered.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Like a cur; having the qualities of a cur; snappish; snarling; churlish; quarrelsome.

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

  • adjective Having the qualities, or exhibiting the characteristics, of a cur; snarling; quarrelsome; snappish; churlish; hence, also malicious; malignant; brutal.

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

  • adjective Pertaining to a cur or mongrel.
  • adjective figuratively ignoble, mean-spirited.

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

  • adjective base and cowardly
  • adjective resembling a cur; snarling and rude

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cur +‎ -ish

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Examples

  • Ambrose finished the narrative with a broken voice indeed, but as one who had more self-command than his brother, perhaps than his uncle, whose exclamations became bitter and angry as he heard of the treatment the boys had experienced from their half-brother, who, as he said, he had always known as a currish mean-spirited churl, but scarce such as this.

    The Armourer's Prentices Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • Ambrose finished the narrative with a broken voice indeed, but as one who had more self-command than his brother, perhaps than his uncle, whose exclamations became bitter and angry as he heard of the treatment the boys had experienced from their half-brother, who, as he said, he had always known as a currish mean-spirited churl, but scarce such as this.

    The Armourer's Prentices Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862

  • "Why don't you say 'currish' and be done with it?"

    The Ordeal A Mountain Romance of Tennessee Mary Noailles Murfree 1886

  • The simile, though a currish one, will hold good in its application to the human race.

    Saint Ronan's Well 2008

  • “It is a currish proposal — thus to thrust thyself upon my private matters,” replied Foster; “but thou wert ever an ill-nurtured whelp.”

    Kenilworth 2004

  • For certain noted fugitives from the army of King Monmouth (which he himself had deserted, in a low and currish manner), having failed to obtain free shipment from the coast near Watersmouth, had returned into the wilds of Exmoor, trusting to lurk, and be comforted among the common people.

    Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004

  • Shall my destruction be wrought by thy most currish unkindenesse, and all my hoped joyes be defeated in a moment?

    The Decameron 2004

  • Tooth-drawers are so rude and cruell, in performing such Offices, as my heart cannot endure, that you should come within compasse of their currish courtesie, neither shall you Sir, if you will be ruled by me.

    The Decameron 2004

  • Marry, she says your dog was a cur, and tells you currish thanks is good enough for such a present.

    The Two Gentlemen of Verona 2004

  • The last sort of dogs consisteth of the currish kind meet for many toys, of which the whappet or prick-eared cur is one.

    Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) Thomas Malory Jean Froissart

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