gruff
gruhf
- s brusque and surly and forbidding
gruff manner
a gruff reply - s deep and harsh sounding as if from shouting or illness or emotion
gruff voices
the dog's gruff barking
- Though he could manage a sort of gruff amiability with strangers, his was, in fact, a withdrawn, suspicious and, above all, controlling nature.
- Or as Joshua Painter, the gruff-but-charming rear admiral in The Hunt for Red October.
- Racing Stripes, 2005As the gruff voice of a gruff-voiced horse, Thompson showed a darker side.