Crabbed

a. Also 4 crabyt, 4–6 crabbid, 4–8 -it, 5 -yd, (Sc. 6–7 crabit, 6 craibit). [orig. f. CRAB sb.¹ + -ED: cf. DOGGED. The primary reference was to the crooked or wayward gait of the crustacean, and the contradictory, perverse and fractious disposition which this expressed. Cf. Ger. krabbe crab, whence, according to Grimm, ‘because these animals are malicious and do not easily let go what they have seized, LG. ene lütje krabbe (a little crab) a little quarrelsome ill-conditioned man (Bremen Wbch.)’; also in Saxony said of self-willed, refractory children. So E.Fris. krabbe crab, transf. a cantankerous, cross-grained man (who is refractory and froward like a crab, sticking fast or going backwards, when he ought to advance); whence krabbîg contentious, cantankerous, fractious, cross-grained (Doornkaat Koolman). Literal senses of ‘cross-grained, crooked,’ and ‘knotted, gnarled, un-smooth,’ applied to sticks, trees, and the like, also appear; these re-act upon the sense in which the word is applied to persons and their dispositions. In later use there is association with the fruit, giving the notion of ‘sour-tempered, morose, peevish, harsh.’]

  1.  Of persons (or their dispositions): orig. Of disagreeably froward or wayward disposition, cross-grained, ill-conditioned, perverse, contrarious, fractious. (Now blending with b.)

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 8943 (Gött.). Þe iuus þat war sua crabbid [Cott. & Fairf. cant] and kene.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 99. Crabbyd, awke, or wrawe [W. wraywarde], ceronicus, bilosus, cancerinus.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xxix. 130. For women are crabbed, þat comes þem of kynde.

1547.  Latimer, Serm. & Rem. (1845), 426. He that is so obstinate and untractable in wickedness and wrong doing, is commonly called a crabbed and froward piece.

1570.  Levins, Manip., 49/9. Crabbed, froward, prauus, iratus.

1643.  Milton, Divorce, Introd. The little that our Saviour could prevail … against the crabbed textuists of his time.

1844.  Alb. Smith, Adv. Mr. Ledbury, I. vii. 84. Despite the persevering labours of those crabbed essayists who write upon sand-paper with a stick of caustic dipped in lemon-juice.

a. 1845.  Hood, Tale of Temper, i. Of all cross breeds of human sinners, The crabbedest are those who dress our dinners.

  b.  In later use: Cross-tempered, ill-conditioned, irritable, acrimonious, churlish; having asperity or acerbity of temper. Since 16th c. a frequent epithet of old age, in which perhaps there was at first the sense ‘crooked’; cf. sense 5. Also often influenced by, and passing insensibly into, sense 9.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 542. That I thairfoir crabit or cruell be.

1579.  Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 43. To you they breed more sorrow and care … because of your crabbed age.

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 65. He that is borne vnder Cancer, shall be crabbed and angrie, because the crab fish is so inclined.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., III. ix. 3. Therein a cancred crabbed carle … That has no skill of court nor courtesie.

1601.  Weever, Mirr. Mart., C j. Craft, anger, vsury, neuer seene in youth: In crabbed age these vices we behold.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., III. i. 8. O She is Ten times more gentle, then her Father’s crabbed; And he’s compos’d of harshnesse.

1635.  N. R., trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., II. xvi. 170. A man of a crabbed disposition and rash to raise commotions.

1779.  Mad. D’Arblay, Lett., Aug. Calling you a crabbed fellow.

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. III. vii. His Father, the harshest of old crabbed men, he loved with warmth, with veneration.

1863.  Geo. Eliot, Romola, III. xviii. A crabbed fellow with crutches is dangerous.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), V. 302. [The] ignorant … lays up in store for himself isolation in crabbed age.

  c.  transf. of things.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 3794. Colwers … & crabbed snakis And oþire warlaȝes wild.

1634.  Milton, Comus, 477. How charming is divine Philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose.

1682.  Dryden, Dk. of Guise, III. i. But if some crabbed virtue turn and pinch them, Mark me, they’ll run … and howl for mercy.

  2.  Of the temporary mood: Cross, vexed, irate, irritated; out of humour. (In early use only Sc.: now dial.; often pronounced crab’d.)

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, Laurentius, 786. Sume mene sait he crabyt is.

1513–75.  Diurn. Occurr. (1833), 81. Quhairat he was crabbit, and causit discharge the said Johne of his preitching.

1530.  Palsgr., 773/2. I waxe crabbed, or angrye countenaunced. Je me rechigne.

1552.  Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 9. It is nocht ane thing to be crabit at our brotheris persone and to be crabit at our brotheris falt.

1812.  J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Crab’d, affronted; out of humour; sometimes called being in Crab-street.

1861.  Holland, Less. Life, i. 19. A business man … will enter his house for dinner as crabbed as a hungry bear.

  † 3.  Of words, actions, etc.: Proceeding from or showing an ill-tempered or irritable disposition; angry; ill-natured. Obs.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. XI. 65. For nou is vche Boye Bold … to … Craken aȝeyn þe Clergie Crabbede wordes.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas, VII. iv. (1554), 168 b. Her feminine crabbed eloquence.

1581.  J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 277. Your crabbed and snappish accusation agaynst Luther.

a. 1632.  T. Taylor, God’s Judgem., I. II. i. (1642), 155. He … chased him away with bitter and crabbed reproaches.

  † b.  Of the countenance: Expressing a harsh or disagreeable disposition: cf. crab-face, CRAB sb.¹ 11.

[c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, Vincentius, 202. Dacyane hyme-self nere wod Become … And kest his handis to & fra And trawit [editor reads crabbit] continence cane ma.]

1603.  H. Crosse, Vertues Commw. (1878), 51. When a crabbed visage and a misshapen body, shall stand by an amiable & louely personage, the deformitie of the one doth much illustrate and beautifie the other.

1641.  Hist. Edw. V., 6. Hard favoured of visage, such as … is called … among common persons, a crabbed face.

  † 4.  Of things: Harsh or unpleasant to the taste or feelings; unpalatable, bitter. Obs. or arch. (Cf. sense 9.)

c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 502. After crysten-masse com þe crabbed lentoun, Þat fraystez flesch wyth þe fysche & fode more symple.

1593.  Tell-Troth’s N. Y. Gift (1876), 40. A kinde dinner and a crabbed supper.

1622.  R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 128. The crabbed entertainement it gave us.

  † 5.  Of trees, sticks: Crooked; having an uneven and rugged stem, gnarled, knotted; having cross-grained and knotted wood. Obs.

c. 1510.  Barclay, Mirr. Gd. Manners (1570), B vj. To make a streyght Jauelin of a crabbed tree.

1539.  Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 5. To a crabbed knotte muste be sought a crabbed wedge.

1594.  Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 53. A crabbed briery hawthorne bush.

1675.  Traherne, Chr. Ethics, xxxiii. 540. A crabbed and knotty piece of matter.

  † b.  of the human body and (fig.) nature.

1601.  Dent, Pathw. Heaven (1831), 18. Troubled … with a crabbed and crooked nature.

1623.  Cockeram, III. Thersites, one that was as crabbed in person as he was Cinicall and doggish in condition.

1632.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 16. This king … being of a crabbed nature, pimple faced and a creple.

1799.  Southey, Sonn., xv. A wrinkled, crabbed man they picture thee, Old Winter.

  † c.  Of land, weather, etc.: Rough, rugged.

1579.  Fenton, Guicciard., V. (1599), 221. A crabbed mountaine, where they lost threescore men at armes and manie footmen.

1583.  Stanyhurst, Æneis, III. (Arb.), 71. God Mars the Regent of that soyle crabbed adoring [Virg. III. 35 Geticis arvis].

1622.  R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 128. The crabbed mountaines which over-topped it.

1876.  Robinson, Whitby Gloss., Crabb’d or Crabby. Weather terms. ‘Bits o’ crabb’d showers,’ the rain or sleet driven by cold winds.

  † 6.  Rough, rugged and inelegant in language.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 41. Though he be rough somtime & crabbed in his maner of speach.

1656.  Cowley, Answ. Copy of Verses, 13, in Misc., 25.

  7.  Of writings, authors, etc.: Ruggedly or perversely intricate; difficult to unravel, construe, deal with, or make sense of.

1561.  T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., III. 310. To debarre crabbed questions.

1612.  Brinsley, Lud. Lit., viii. (1627), 122. The best and easiest Commentaries of the hardest and most crabbed Schoole-Authors.

1675.  Baxter, Cath. Theol., II. I. 2. Writing so many great Volumes of them, in crabbed Scholastick stile.

1763–5.  Churchill, Poems, Author. O’er crabbed authors life’s gay prime to waste.

1788.  Reid, Aristotle’s Log., iv. § 6. Those crabbed geniuses made this doctrine very thorny.

1830.  Mackintosh, Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, I. 179. Mr. Hume, who has translated so many of the dark and crabbed passages of Butler into his own transparent and beautiful language.

a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), II. 76. Since my old crony and myself Laid crabbed Euclid on the shelf.

1890.  Times, 20 Jan., 9/2. It is a hard, dry, and rather crabbed collection of notes and statistics.

  b.  Of handwriting: Difficult to decipher from the bad formation of the characters.

1612.  Dekker, If it be not Good, Wks. 1873, III. 287. Lawes Wrap’d vp in caracters, crabbed and vnknowne.

1800.  Mrs. Hervey, Mourtray Fam., I. 91. It is such a crabbed hand, I can’t read half of it.

1853.  Faraday, in B. Jones, Life (1870), II. 318. Do you see how crabbed my hand-writing has become?

1879.  F. Harrison, Choice Bks. (1886), 18. A few worn rolls of crabbed manuscript.

  † 8.  Of or pertaining to the zodiacal sign Cancer. Obs. rare.

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 43. Mvskat, is a Citie … vpon the Persian Gulfe and almost Nadyr to the crabbed Tropique.

  9.  Of the nature of the crab-tree or its fruit; fig. sour-tempered, peevish, morose; harsh.

1565–73.  Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Acerbus, Vultus acerbus, sower or crabbed.

1599.  Marston, Sco. Villanie, 170. Against the veriuice-face of the Crabbedst Satyrist that euer stuttered.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 102. Three crabbed Moneths had sowr’d themselues to death.

1656.  Duchess Newcastle, in Life of Dk. (1886), 313. As for my disposition, it is … not crabbed or peevishly melancholy.

1726.  Amherst, Terræ Filius, xxxvi. 189. This philosophical apple-tree … never grew kindly, nor produced any thing but sour crabbed stuff.

1865.  J. G. Holland, Plain Talk, iii. 107. Only treated respectfully by wives and children because they are crabbed and sour.

  10.  Comb., as crabbed-looking, -handed adjs.

1806–7.  J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), V. xi. That sort of hideous old crabbed-looking crone of fashion.

1837.  Sir F. Palgrave, Merch. & Friar, i. (1844), 34. A lean-visaged, crabbed-looking personage.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, xliii. That crabbed-handed absent relative.