Usually means: Stubborn, bad-tempered, difficult to manage.
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We found 26 dictionaries that define the word ornery:

General (23 matching dictionaries)
  1. ornery: Merriam-Webster.com
  2. ornery: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
  3. ornery: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  4. ornery: Collins English Dictionary
  5. ornery: Vocabulary.com
  6. Ornery, ornery: Wordnik
  7. ornery: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
  8. ornery: Wiktionary
  9. ornery: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  10. ornery: The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus
  11. ornery: Infoplease Dictionary
  12. ornery: Dictionary.com
  13. ornery: Online Etymology Dictionary
  14. ornery: Cambridge Essential American English Dictionary
  15. Ornery: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
  16. ornery: Rhymezone
  17. ornery: Free Dictionary
  18. ornery: Mnemonic Dictionary
  19. ornery: LookWAYup Translating Dictionary/Thesaurus
  20. Ornery: The Word Detective
  21. ornery: Dictionary/thesaurus

Business (1 matching dictionary)
  1. ornery: Legal dictionary

Slang (2 matching dictionaries)
  1. ornery, ornery: Green’s Dictionary of Slang
  2. ornery: Urban Dictionary

(Note: See ornerier as well.)

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Definitions from Wiktionary (
)
American English Definition British English Definition
▸ adjective:  (originally and chiefly US, especially Appalachia, informal) Disagreeable, stubborn, and troublesome to deal with; cantankerous.
▸ adjective:  (Southern US, humorous, informal) Troublesome to deal with in a good way; mischievous, prankish, teasing.
▸ adjective:  (obsolete) Ordinary, commonplace; hence, inferior, plain-looking, unpleasant.

Similar:
ill-natured, cantankerous, crotchety, awnry, cussed, full of the devil, nettlesome, atrabilious, ugly, stroppy, more...

Opposite:
amiable, affable, genial, agreeable

Types:
cantankerous, grouchy, irritable, crabby, bad-tempered, ill-humored, more...

Phrases:
opposite of ornery, ornery or stubborn sort, most ornery, more...

Adjectives:
plain, little, real, mighty, right, plumb, damn, jest, awful, darn, pure

Colors:
    burnt sienna,     rust,     brick red,     maroon,     mahogany,     chestnut,     copper,     sepia,     umber,     sienna


▸ Word origin

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Similar:
ill-natured, cantankerous, crotchety, awnry, cussed, full of the devil, nettlesome, atrabilious, ugly, stroppy, more...

Opposite:
amiable, affable, genial, agreeable

Types:
cantankerous, grouchy, irritable, crabby, bad-tempered, ill-humored, more...

Phrases:
opposite of ornery, ornery or stubborn sort, most ornery, more...

Adjectives:
plain, little, real, mighty, right, plumb, damn, jest, awful, darn, pure

Colors:
    burnt sienna,     rust,     brick red,     maroon,     mahogany,     chestnut,     copper,     sepia,     umber,     sienna



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