gruff

gruff
    adj 1: brusque and surly and forbidding; "crusty remarks"; "a
           crusty old man"; "his curmudgeonly temper"; "gruff
           manner"; "a gruff reply" [syn: {crusty}, {curmudgeonly},
           {gruff}, {ill-humored}, {ill-humoured}]
    2: deep and harsh sounding as if from shouting or illness or
       emotion; "gruff voices"; "the dog's gruff barking"; "hoarse
       cries"; "makes all the instruments sound powerful but husky"-
       Virgil Thomson [syn: {gruff}, {hoarse}, {husky}]
    

Gruff \Gruff\ (gr[u^]f), a. [Compar. {Gruffer} (gr[u^]f"[~e]r);
   superl. {Gruffest}.] [D. grof; akin to G. grob, OHG. gerob,
   grob, Dan. grov, Sw. grof, perh. akin to AS. rc['o]fan to
   break, Z. reavc, rupture, g- standing for the AS. prefix ge-,
   Goth. ga-.]
   Of a rough or stern manner, voice, or countenance; sour;
   surly; severe; harsh. --Addison.
   [1913 Webster]

         Gruff, disagreeable, sarcastic remarks.  --Thackeray.
   -- {Gruff"ly}, adv. -- {Gruff"ness}, n.
   [1913 Webster]
    

86 Moby Thesaurus words for "gruff":
      abrupt, acerb, acid, acrimonious, aggressive, bad-tempered,
      bearish, beastly, biting, bluff, blunt, boorish, brash, brassy,
      brazen, brusque, cantankerous, caustic, cavalier, choked, churlish,
      coarse, crabbed, crabby, cracked, croaking, croaky, cross,
      crotchety, crusty, curt, cutting, deep, dour, dry, fierce, grouchy,
      growling, grumbling, grumbly, grumpish, grumpy, guttural, harsh,
      harsh-sounding, hoarse, husky, ill-humored, ill-natured, irascible,
      irritable, low, metallic, morose, peevish, petulant, querulous,
      ragged, rasping, raucid, raucous, rough, roupy, rude, saturnine,
      severe, sharp, short, short-tempered, snippety, snippy, sour,
      squawking, squawky, stertorous, stinging, strangled, sulky, sullen,
      surly, testy, thick, throaty, tinny, truculent, uncivil