Meaning of cross-grained | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Having an irregular rather than a parallel grain.
   not-comparable
2. Difficult to deal with; contrary or troublesome.
   broadly, not-comparable

Equivalents

Examples

“It is quite wonderful to me, in such a cross-grained, hardening, and harsh world as ours, where she can have⟳ contrived to keep⟳ so much of open⟳, fresh, and kindly feeling.”

“It was my old cross-grained companion, Professor Summerlee. "What!" he cried. "Don't tell⟳ me that you have⟳ had one of these preposterous telegrams for oxygen?" I exhibited it.”

“For five minutes, Tommy sat on the bed in the dingy room next door. His heart was beating violently. He had risked all on this throw⟳. How would they decide⟳? And all the while that this agonized questioning went on within him, he talked flippantly to Conrad, enraging the cross-grained doorkeeper to the point⟳ of homicidal mania.”

CEFR level