I just cannot believe Parramatta won and we lost. We were a 10-point better side, they scored two arsey tries and we had two disallowed, which you could see for sure were OK. Geoff Johnson, quoted in Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, 2 Sept. 1991
2
British slang: maliciously spiteful, bad-tempered, or unreasonable
When I told my girlfriend I was going for a drink with my flatmate, she got really arsey. James Petherbridge, Daily Mirror (London), 11 Aug. 2001
He was just asking you a question and you have to come over all arsey. Zadie Smith, White Teeth, 2000
Word History
Etymology
arseass entry 4 + -y entry 1; sense 1 after tin-arse "lucky person," tin-arsed "lucky"