adjective

bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative.

he can be a cantankerous old fossil at times

bad-tempered,irascible,irritable,grumpy,grouchy,crotchety,tetchy,testy,crusty,curmudgeonly,ill-tempered,ill-natured,ill-humoured,peevish,cross,fractious,disagreeable,pettish,crabbed,crabby,waspish,prickly,peppery,touchy,scratchy,splenetic,shrewish,short-tempered,hot-tempered,quick-tempered,dyspeptic,choleric,bilious,liverish,cross-grained,argumentative,quarrelsome,uncooperative,contrary,perverse,difficult,awkward,as cross as two sticks,snappish,snappy,chippy,on a short fuse,short-fused,shirty,stroppy,narky,ratty,eggy,like a bear with a sore head,cranky,ornery,peckish,soreheaded,snaky,waxy,miffy