✅ Crotchety describes someone who is both grouchy and given to odd whims (a rich, crotchety old man).

✅ Ornery describes someone who is stubborn or who is unpleasant to be around (an ornery customer who always complained).

✅ Both crotchety and ornery describe stubborn and unpleasant people.

✅ However, crotchety suggests an element of eccentricity that ornery does not (She was crotchety and wanted everything done a certain way).

✅ Brash describes someone who is tactless and impertinent and can come across as rude (a brash young person; a brash reply to her text).

✅ Cheeky describes someone who is playfully disrespectful and bold (a cheeky toddler; a cheeky compliment).

✅ Brash and cheeky both describe being impertinent, and both these qualities can seem like rudeness.

✅ Brash is a more negative term, whereas cheeky is more neutral or positive.

✅ Shake can mean to gesticulate with something (She shook her fist at the seagull that stole her lunch).

✅ Brandish means to wave a weapon in a threatening way (They brandished foam swords at each other).

✅ In this sense, shake and brandish have basically the same meaning.

✅ Shake, however, has a much more general meaning that brandish does not: to move something in short quick movements (Shake the bottle to mix the ingredients).