crabfaced
English
editEtymology
editFrom crab + faced, Relating to being sour in temper as a crab-apple is in taste.
Adjective
editcrabfaced (comparative more crabfaced, superlative most crabfaced)
- Having a sour, disagreeable countenance.
Quotations
edit- 1619-1623, John Fletcher and Philip Massinger (authors), The Little French Lawyer:
- He that's sad, A crab-faced mistress cleave to him for this year!
References
edit- Rev. A. Smythe Palmer, Folk-Etymology: A Dictionary of Corrupted Words (1882, c. renewed 1969)
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “crabfaced”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)