† 1. = CRABBED 5, 6. 7. Obs.
1550. Coverdale, Spir. Perle, vi. (1588), 71. So doth God lop & hewe the crabby olde Adam with the crosse.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 134. The most combersome and crabby treatie of Freewill.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, 170. Persius is crabby, because auntient, and his ierkes … dusky.
2. = CRABBED 1, 9.
1776. Paine, Com. Sense, App. (1791), 86. The narrow and crabby spirit of a despairing political party.
1850. M. Margoliouth, Pilgr. Land of Fathers, II. 61. We must have looked very crabby when we made those rude speeches.
1891. Atkinson, Last of Giant Killers, 101. The crabby, surly, savage old giant.
