rebarbative

adj.
Tending to irritate; repellent: "He became rebarbative, prickly, spiteful" (Robert Craft).

[French rébarbatif, from Old French, from (se) rebarber, to confront : re-, re- + barbe, beard (from Latin barba).]

(ree-BAHR-buh-tiv)

adjective
Irritating; repellent.

Etymology
From French rebarbative (offputting), feminine form of rebarbatif, from rebarber (to be repellent), from barbe (beard), from Latin barba (beard)

Are bearded people irritating? While some find a beard on a man attractive, literally speaking it could be like barbed wire - repelling - for others. In fact, the words barb, barber, and beard are derived from the same root as today's word.

Usage
"From cosy Whitelaw to rebarbative Ingham, there are now over a dozen versions of the Thatcher decade by Thatcher's servants ..." — Catherine Bennett; Tales From the Book Cabinet; The Guardian (London, UK); Oct 1, 1993.

"As Nixon and the boy who would one day become his rebarbative five o'clock shadow both understood, football is simply war by other means." — Bruce Newman; Oliver Stone Goes to War Again, With Cleats On; The New York Times; Nov 14, 1999.

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repellent, irritating, crabbed

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The adjective has one meaning:

Meaning #1: serving or tending to repel
  Synonyms: repellent, repellant

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