malagrugrous

From Scots malagrugrous.

malagrugrous (comparative more malagrugrous, superlative most malagrugrous)

1. (rare) Dismal; gloomy; grim; forbidding.
   • 1829, John Gibson Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life Of Sir Walter Scott Bart, volume VIII, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, page 64:

     “Ah! ” said he, “the Crafty and James Ballantyne have been so much connected in business, that Patsman would be sure to hear of anything so important; and I like the notion of his hearing it, and not sending me one of his malagrugrous billets-doux . He could as soon keep his eyebrows in their place if you told him there was a fire in his nursery.”

   • 1838, John Alexander Ballantyne, Refutation of the Mistatements and Calumnies Contained in Mr. Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart : Respecting the Messrs Ballantyne, London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans; w:, page 106:

     The Pamphleteers seem to lay great stress on a certain malagrugrous exposition of his own views and prospects, drawn up by James Ballantyne in February 1826, when he was eager to have the Company sequestrated at once, which, but for Sir Walter's heroic feeling and spirit, it no doubt would have been.

   • 2012 April, Amanda Scott, Highland Lover, Forever, page 170:

     “Aye, well, ye were a-looking as malagrugrous as me old master when he were a-reaching for his leather, so I thought I’d best talk soft,” Will said.

From mal- +‎ alagrugous, or grugous.

malagrugrous (comparative mair malagrugrous, superlative maist malagrugrous)

1. dismal; gloomy

• “malagrugrous”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.