Meanings
comparative more Meldrewish · superlative most Meldrewish
- grumpy; prone to peevish exasperation
Far from being a Meldrewish ogre, Wilson turns out to be one of the friendliest, most open-hearted and most modest […]
2007, The Spectator, volume 303, page 551 more example
If occasionally a poem luxuriates in its nostalgia without much point ('Without Potatoes' is a Meldrewish whinge about Spud-U-Likes), […]
1998, Stephen Phillips, Galloway Kyle, Harold Monro, Poetry Review, page 89Synonyms: Meldrewesque
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivegrumpy; prone to peevish exasperation
Origin
From Meldrew + -ish, after Victor Meldrew, a grumpy old man who is the fictional protagonist of the 1990s sitcom One Foot in the Grave.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Meldrewish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Meldrewish
“Meldrewish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Meldrewish. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Meldrewish,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Meldrewish.
Source: Meldrewish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.