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cross as a bear
Idioms and Phrases
Grumpy, ill-humored, annoyed, as in Stay away from Claire; she's cross as a bear this morning . Unlike the earlier cross as two stocks , this survives even though the adjective cross for âill-temperedâ is otherwise not used much in America. It is sometimes amplified as cross as a bear with a sore head . [Early 1700s]Example Sentences
Therefore, to use the expressive, if not elegant, language of a schoolgirl, âHe was as nervous as a witch and as cross as a bearâ.
As fair as a lily, As empty as air, As fresh as a daisy, As cross as a bear.
He was as cross as a bear with a sore head.
Of course marriage isn't so easy, especially in the first year, and especially if there are no childrenâwhat with the husband away at work all day and tired to death and like as not cross as a bear when he comes home in the eveningâI know!âa young wife can't be blamed for feeling a little out of sorts sometimes.
Mr. Davis had evidently taken his coffee too strong that morning; there was an east wind, which always affected his neuralgia; and his pupils had not done him the credit which he felt he deserved: therefore, to use the expressive, if not elegant, language of a school-girl, "he was as nervous as a witch and as cross as a bear."
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American HeritageŸ Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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