Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Moroseness.
  • noun Morose people.

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

  • noun rare Moroseness.

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

  • noun The quality or state of being morose.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French morosité, from Latin morositas ("peevishness"), from morosus ("particular, scrupulous, fastidious, self-willed, wayward, capricious, fretful, peevish"), from mos ("way, custom, habit, self-will").

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Examples

  • "They who conversed with him knew him to have many humours which were very intolerable; they who were but little acquainted with him took him to be a man of much knowledge, and called his morosity gravity."

    Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon — Volume 02 Henry Craik 1886

  • I am sorry to hear that he grows every day more froward, and with such a kind of morosity, that doth either argue a great discontent in mind, or a distemper of humours in his body.

    Christmas: Its Origin and Associations Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries William Francis Dawson

  • They embraced a sort of enthusiastic fatalism, a sort of ebullient morosity.

    March 31st, 2009 m_francis 2009

  • I am, I confess, naturally inclined to that which misguided zeal terms superstition: my common conversation I do acknowledge austere, my behaviour full of rigour, sometimes not without morosity; yet, at my devotion I love to use the civility of my knee, my hat, and hand, with all those outward and sensible motions which may express or promote my invisible devotion.

    Religio Medici 2007

  • Trunnion no sooner heard him mention the cause of her disorder, than his morosity recurring, he burst out into a violent fit of cursing, and forthwith betook himself again to his hammock, where he lay, uttering, in a low growling tone of voice, a repetition of oaths and imprecations, for the space of four-and-twenty hours, without ceasing.

    The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle 2004

  • They did not care to improve their access, or increase their traffic; not through cold morosity, or even proud indifference, but because they had been so brought up, and so confirmed by circumstance.

    Mary Anerley Richard Doddridge 2004

  • With this language many did begin to feel offended; it seemed to be morosity and ill-will, the pusillanimity of old age, or a fear, that had now become exaggerated, of the skill of Hannibal.

    The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Plutarch 2003

  • But ultimately this is my space and I do what I like with it, and that includes as much morosity as I care to sling.

    kinaesthesia Diary Entry kinaesthesia 2001

  • Raca denotes indeed morosity, and lightness of manners and life: but fool judgeth bitterly of the spiritual and eternal state, and decreeth a man to certain destruction.

    From the Talmud and Hebraica 1602-1675 1979

  • Though in his nature he had not only a firme gravity, but a severity, and even some morosity

    Characters from 17th Century Histories and Chronicles Various

Comments

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  • "Then why doesn't he? What's wrong with us? I'd begun to think he was temperamentally morose -- that he just couldn't help it -- but after seeing him turn on his charm for the Cottons -- ! Heaven knows I didn't expect an easy life when I married him -- I was prepared even for violence. But I do loathe morosity."

    It was no moment to tell her there is no such word; anyway, I rather liked it.

    from I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith.

    September 4, 2011