as in petulant
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Recent Examples of stroppy
She’s matched wonderfully by Cooke, who leans into her actual Manchester accent to give Cherry a stroppy, sarcastic bent and whose body looks absolutely banging wrapped in an array of oxblood, maroon, and cerise minidresses.
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Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 10 Sep. 2025
The team’s cohesion and ability to handle adversity are worlds apart from the stroppy exits that defined Mauricio Pochettino’s time managing a team of Galacticos.
—Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes.com, 29 May 2025
Yet the Brazilian proceeded to show how Pereira’s faith was misplaced, first with a stroppy performance at Chelsea that prompted his head coach to publicly criticise his body language and then with his second violent meltdown of the season, against Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez in the FA Cup.
—Steve Madeley, New York Times, 28 May 2025
Ramaswamy stole a page from Trump’s 2016 playbook, emerging as a stroppy candidate challenging the status quo of Washington.
—Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2023
Madison makes for a peculiar heroine; her performance as a realistically stroppy adolescent, in possession of a weariness and cynicism far beyond her years, recalls Karen Kilgariff playing a child in an improv scene.
—Declan Gallagher, EW.com, 7 Oct. 2022
But even if Brexit reflects Britain’s carefree pensioners—and some evidence suggests that despite being older, Brexit voters were stroppier than average—there is little sign of such an age effect elsewhere.
—The Economist, 11 July 2019
Indeed, a video on AS' website shows the marksman getting extremely stroppy when he is told to conduct some acceleration drills alone while his fellow players get on with another session.
—SI.com, 12 Oct. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stroppy
Adjective
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This whole thing makes Sylvie seem so petulant and childish … really not like herself at all!—
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What Laxe has orchestrated is not a simplistic clash of cultures but a collective upending of fortunes in which the rulings of fate, or of Allah, prove too cruel and too permanent to trigger a petulant blame game.—
Adjective
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Some of the consequences of owing your body sleep are readily apparent, like feeling drowsy, irritable, or brain-foggy, or catching seemingly every virus.—
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Accompanying Rayner through these daily adventures were the irritable duck Chelveston (named after his English bomber base) and the gentle dog puppet Cuddly Dudley.—
Adjective
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The restaurant team wears its impressive training lightly, dipping into an encyclopedic knowledge of Sicilian wine and cheering up a grumpy toddler in the same breath.—
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Not all of the jokes work, but even the grumpiest theatergoers will find plenty of laughs.—
Adjective
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As a ballplayer, Kent was as irascible as Bonds; the two alphas reportedly brawled behind clubhouse doors, and famously clashed in the dugout during a 2002 game, when Bonds lunged for Kent’s throat and pushed him against the wall.—
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Nothing adds depth to an irascible curmudgeon quite like an irrational love of pets that do not love you back.—
Adjective
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For now, the contrast between Martin and his patients has a productive friction that gives Charles plenty of grouchy misanthropy to work with.—
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But for younger generations, Ron Howard's 2000 adaptation starring a ghoulishly grouchy Jim Carrey is just as essential.—
Adjective
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Instead, Helen is allowed to be irritable and anti-social, chain-smoking and snappish, without the filmmaker casting judgment.—
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Harriette Cole: My twins are getting snappish over college acceptance Asking Eric: A cemetery guard ruined my father’s funeral, and that was just the start This includes stating your belief that your explanations may not be believed.—
Adjective
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While grunge seemed peevish, grim, defeatist, and dour—and extended the kind of us-vs.-them culture most famously centered by the indie rock of the ’80s and ’90s, Oasis was celebratory, communal, and democratic while exploring themes of alienation, escape, and fantasies of triumph.—
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Thousands of people — displaced by disaster, their past lives gone up in smoke — are hostage to the whims of a peevish president who always puts his feelings first and cares nothing for the greater good.—
Adjective
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Arteta can strike a crotchety figure in post-match interviews, particularly when his team have dropped points.—
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The tale she’s lived to tell emerges, for all its crotchety complaints, from a place of unerring loyalty.—
Cite this Entry
“Stroppy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stroppy. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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