stroppy

English

Etymology

From obstropulous, obsolete slang form of obstreperous, +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈstɹɒpi/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒpi

Adjective

stroppy (comparative stroppier, superlative stroppiest)

1. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Commonwealth, slang) Ornery, fractious, belligerent, or obstreperous, and hence difficult to deal with.
   • 1989, Kenneth Branagh, Beginning, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, page 64:

     In this case, the application of the famous method was a little shaky. To be fair, the director was dealing with a pretty stroppy cast.

   • 2004, Simon Brett, The Hanging in the Hotel‎^[1], Pan Macmillan UK:

     Her shape and posture shadowed her daughter′s, though Kerry carried herself with more attitude, a stroppier jutting of the hips than her mother.

   • 2010, Gillian Bloxham, W. Doyle Gentry, Anger Management For Dummies‎^[2], UK edition:

     Even today, women who show signs of anger and who express themselves in some assertive way may be labelled stroppy for doing so.

   • 2010, Alexandra Bell, Rising to the Deadline, Trafford Publishing, Canada, page 140:

     The people who actually produced the paper, mainly the printers, were a stroppier lot, with a more aggressive union.

   • 2010, Sophie Kinsella [pseudonym; Madeleine Wickham], Mini Shopaholic, page 341:

     Davina told me earlier that Luke was the stroppiest patient she'd ever had and that he'd given her a lecture on how inefficient and time-wasting her medical was.

Derived terms

• stroppily
• stroppiness

Translations

obstreperous

• French: borné (fr)

See also

• strop (unrelated)

Further reading

• “stroppy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.