(adj) brusque and surly and forbidding; "crusty remarks"; "a crusty old man"; "his curmudgeonly temper"; "gruff manner"; "a gruff reply"
deep and harshsounding as if from shouting or illness or emotion; "gruff voices"; "the dog's gruff barking"; "hoarse cries"; "makes all the instruments soundpowerful but husky"- Virgil Thomson