Greg Boyle

You stand with the least likely to succeed until success is succeeded by something more valuable: kinship. You stand with the belligerent, the surly and the badly behaved until bad behavior is recognized for the language it is: the vocabulary of the deeply wounded and of those whose burdens are more than they can bear.

American Clergyman

Olivia Colman

I was never one of those surly teenagers who doesn't smile. My lovely godfather said it was always lovely to see me because I was the only teenager who smiled. And I was so in awe of him, I thought it was one of the best things anyone had ever said to me. So it made me want to live up to what he said.

English Actress

Melissa Rauch

I was kind of like the Rhea Perlman of the bar. I was like Carla on 'Cheers.' People were more afraid of me. There was a point where I got a little surly. There were only so many chicken wings I could serve before losing the smile on my face.

American Actress

Helen Oyeyemi

I don't think anything can help me socially, to be honest: I have this terrible personality. I don't really know how to describe it... maybe I'll go with surly.

British Novelist

Duncan Jones

When I was at graduate school, you wouldn't have recognised me. I was so different - and not a nice person: a grumpy, surly, upset, confused, lost person.

English Director

John Millington Synge

Lord, confound this surly sister, blight her brow with blotch and blister, cramp her larynx, lung and liver, in her guts a galling give her.

Irish Poet

Natalie Zea

I was a theater geek, and I was a surly cheerleader, and that's really kind of a contradiction.

Surly often suggests a deliberate intent to be unpleasant.

Perceived Intent

When someone is surly, they make others feel unwelcome or uncomfortable.

Social Interaction

Use 'surly' to imply someone's mood is temporarily unpleasant.

Mood Indicator

Use 'surly' to describe someone who is frequently in a bad mood, not just once.

Persistent Character

Being surly can harm relationships with others, indicating a pattern of anger.

Affects Relationships

'Surly' suggests a stronger, more aggressive form of grumpiness.

Not Just Grumpy

 you know I got to go back I can't I can't sleep at night we drove back to this area I put down my my bag and I walked up we'd all just burst I walked up and I saw this fossil on an edge of rock and I walked up to it and I could see in front of my eyes the skull of the surly dinosaur the first one that had ever

Interview: Paul Sereno PIPE...

 And I've always thought it a shame that these giant, plant-eating dinosaurs are too often portrayed as passive, lumbering platters of meat on the landscape. They're not. Big herbivores can be surly, and they can be territorial --

Hunting for dinosaurs...

 air travel these days is just not what it used to be at least that's what I constantly hear from friends and in the mainstream media harsh stories of crowded planes with surly flight