Crab″bed (kr?b″b?d), a. [See Crab,n.] 1. Characterized by or manifesting, sourness, peevishness, or moroseness; harsh; cross; cynical; — applied to feelings, disposition, or manners.
Crabbed age and youth can not live together.
Shak.
2. Characterized by harshness or roughness; unpleasant; — applied to things; as, a crabbed taste.
3. Obscure; difficult; perplexing; trying; as, a crabbed author. “Crabbed eloquence.” Chaucer.
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose.
Milton.
4. Cramped; irregular; as, crabbed handwriting.
— Crab″bed‐ly, adv. — Crab″bed‐ness, n.