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.