(1) While the Spielberg of popular myth is Mr Nice Guy, Lean was known as an obsessive, cantankerous tyrant who didn't much like actors and was only truly happy locked away in the editing suite.
(2) He owed his late-flourishing film career to Branagh, appearing in a string of his movies: as Bardolph in Henry V (1989), Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing (1993), the old blind man in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), a cantankerous old thespian in A Midwinter's Tale (1995), Polonius in Hamlet (1996) and Sir Nathaniel in the musical Love's Labour's Lost (2000).
(3) Ken could be magnificently cantankerous, but he was generous to a fault and loved nothing more than to inspire young film-makers.
(4) Her mother the Duchess of Kent had wanted to call her Georgiana Charlotte Augusta Alexandrina Victoria, but was overruled by a cantankerous Prince Regent, the future George IV, who dictated during the ceremony that she be called Alexandrina Victoria instead in tribute to the Russian Tsar Alexander I.
(5) In my cosseted complacency, I had mistakenly believed that modern Scotland was a good place to practise the curious rituals of my cantankerous, old Catholic faith.
(6) And what a face it is: that gnarled, acne-pocked, gin-blossomed lunar landscape of ornery venom and intermittent soulfulness, out of which comes that cantankerous Texan bark.
(7) The ITV bosshas become more and more cantankerous in his dealings with the media over the past few months as the broadcaster has struggled in the advertising recession and then seen its search for a chief executive or chairman to replace him hit by a series of setbacks.
(8) I had spent my life wondering if I would ever find the elderly Jewish actor capable of "doing" the cantankerous, passionate, funny old characters of my early life.
(9) No sudden appearances from David Starkey, looming out of the historical gloaming like the ghost of a cantankerous 1930s dinner lady.
(10) He was called cantankerous, which he probably took as a badge of honour.
(11) Signature video The first Unnecessary Otter skit, introducing us to Hayes playing a sweet children's TV presenter with the aforementioned cantankerous Scottish sidekick.
(12) In 1948, the cantankerous but influential scholar FR Leavis crowned Austen mother of his great tradition of the English novel.
(13) Think of him as a cantankerous old kung-fu master whose tough love hides a deep-seated desire for his students to prosper.
(14) Like Charles Dickens, Twain achieved immense success with his first book, became his nation's most famous and best-loved author, and has remained a national treasure ever since – America's most archetypal writer, an instantly recognisable, white-haired, white-suited, folksy, cantankerous icon.
(15) In conversation, he exudes a mix of warmth and cantankerousness, idealism about humanity's potential and a weariness with the modern world – at least outside the eminently sensible shire in which he lives.
(16) Godard is the great, implacably cantankerous and difficult warrior from the new wave generation, one that still makes its mark at Cannes.
(17) The more cantankerous Senator Ted Cruz called it “Obamacare for the internet”.
(18) He’s cantankerous and eccentric but you don’t get to make a difference if you are a shrinking violet.
(19) Emerging from the gloom is Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss, excellent), a preoccupied, sensitive Sydney detective returning to her hometown to nurse her cantankerous mother, only to find herself drawn into an investigation into the abuse of a pregnant 12-year-old girl.
(20) What some saw as an eccentric masterpiece, others dismissed as an eccentric mess – a wilfully obscure meditation on the nature of globalisation from a cantankerous old genius who took a perverse delight in bamboozling his audience.
Churlish
Definition:
(a.) Like a churl; rude; cross-grained; ungracious; surly; illiberal; niggardly.
(a.) Wanting pliancy; unmanageable; unyielding; not easily wrought; as, a churlish soil; the churlish and intractable nature of some minerals.
Example Sentences:
(1) And maybe you'll ask how she is, rather than simply responding to her questions with churlish, one-word answers.
(2) Surely it would be churlish now for MPs not to take him at his word, and demand a clear explanation from Starbucks and the other multinationals that, at first glance at least, appear to be gaming Britain's tax system?
(3) Dan Ashworth, David Gill and I have carried out a thorough process in the last three weeks and ultimately we could not look beyond Sam as the ideal candidate.” Allardyce performed a minor miracle to save Sunderland from relegation after succeeding Dick Advocaat last October but, in a terse statement which will interpreted as churlish, the Wearside club failed to reference his contribution, let alone thank him or offer their good wishes.
(4) Magnus Thue, a government adviser, tweeted: “The clown is ousted as chairman.” He later offered an apology in another tweet, claiming it was “churlish”.
(5) Jonathan Ford, chief executive of the Football Association of Wales, said some Ifab members did consider whether an outright ban would be "a little bit churlish".
(6) But right now (and despite those gathering storm-clouds) it seems churlish to argue against her brand of old-school artistic patronage.
(7) I've never celebrated any of the times it has posted record profits, so it does feel a bit churlish to berate it for not making quite as much money this time.
(8) Lewis said it would be "churlish" of Labour to resist Patten's appointment, but while accepting the peer had the "experience and credibility" to do the job, he said his party's support would "be conditional" on the peer meeting a series of tests, including clarifying his business and political interests.
(9) In a post-crash, post-expenses-scandal world, it would be churlish not to recognise that on some issues the Liberal Democrats have hit a nerve.
(10) The corner isn't much of an event, but so good has the entertainment been, it'd be churlish to moan too much.
(11) That is not churlishness or ingratitude, but a mark of the country’s real progress.
(12) His award of a Nobel prize in economics was richly deserved - even if he was churlish in accepting it (he said after winning: "I would not want a professional judgment of my scientific work to be those seven people who selected me for the award").
(13) You'd have to be pretty churlish to pick on one that has raised thousands of pounds for breast cancer care.
(14) For years we've been arguing that Sky makes all this money and it should use it to fund original content, so I think it's cheap and churlish point scoring to ignore them or want them to fail.
(15) Towards the close of our session in the holding cells it seemed churlish for there not to be a little banter with Karadzic.
(16) It seemed churlish to point out that sometimes you really do need to be careful what you wish for or that Newcastle had not proved that hot at strategy in recent years.
(17) It seems churlish to be critical when so many people, for whom Brent Cross must seem as ancient as Canterbury cathedral, will say this is the best place they have ever been.
(18) To criticise a business that has just pumped out profits of £2.5bn on sales of £44.6bn may seem churlish but UK industry data has shown Tesco's underlying growth lagging behind that of peers such as Sainsbury's and Morrisons for several years.
(19) At an ebullient Nick Clegg's side at the agreement's launch, David Cameron reproached the "churlish" media for not giving credit where it was due.
(20) Let's not be churlish when there's much to celebrate.