Converse of object

• play: Clearly, I only play a curmudgeon in the newspaper.

• become: Our friend and colleague Bob Shimizu tells us that he is studying to become a curmudgeon in his old age.

Adjective modifier

• old: Perhaps all this has made me into an old curmudgeon that has little sympathy for what has gone on in or out of academia.

• grumpy: Yes, but without becoming " a grumpy old curmudgeon " .

• lovable: Famous now as Britain's most lovable curmudgeon, Arthur Smith arrived at UEA in 1973 to study Comparative Literature.