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churl·ish (chûrlĭsh)
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adj.
1. Having a bad disposition; surly: "as valiant as the lion, churlish as the bear" (Shakespeare).
2. Archaic Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar.
3. Archaic Difficult to work with; intractable. Used as of soil.
churlish·ly adv.
churlish·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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