1. Displaying or showing a disagreeable, irritable, or malevolent disposition: Sally, the customer, responded with surliness when the clerk continued to ignore her.

The surliness of the author, when errors in his text were pointed out to him, resulted in a delay of the publication of his book.
2. Etymology: from "lordly, majestic", an alteration of Middle English sirly, "lordly, imperious"; from sir; a variant of sire.