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The colloquial British-English noun grumpy-drawers designates a bad-tempered, sullen person.
Here, the noun drawers means: underpants.—Cf. the colloquial British-English phrase to get one’s knickers in a twist, meaning: to become unduly agitated or angry.
The noun grumpy-drawers occurs, for example, in Give England another chance, Jan, by the British journalist Janet Street-Porter (born 1946), published in The Independent (London, England) of Saturday 29th March 2014 [page 47, column 3]:
What’s got into Jan Morris? The acclaimed travel writer told an audience that England “depresses me greatly”, adding that “it’s become such a nasty country”. At the Oxford Literary Festival last week she added that politicians were materialistic, the police corrupt and “the public seem to think only about spending money. Kindness is not there any more.” She described the Last Night of the Proms as “embarrassing”.
For God’s sake, Miss Grumpy Drawers, lighten up. I might offer to take you to the X Factor musical I Can’t Sing! because its sheer silliness is guaranteed to put a smile on anyone’s face.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the noun grumpy-drawers that I have found:
1-: From Maggie Muggins, or, Spring in Earl’s Court (London: Michael Joseph, 1981), by the British author and columnist Keith Waterhouse (1929-2009) [page 103]:
He’d gone so far over the top in his pettishness that it was funny. Maggie’s own fit of the grumps blew away. ‘Oh, come on, grumpy-drawers! Come here. Kiss better.’
2-: From 18th Birthdays, published in the Southport Visiter (Southport, Lancashire, England) of Friday 5th August 1994 [page 17, column 2]:
RYDER
(ELAINE)
Happy 18th Birthday
Grumpy Drawers
Loads of love from Mum, Dad, Darren, Sonic, Tara and Buster
xxx
3-: From Family Announcements, published in the Lanark & Carluke Advertiser (Lanark, Lanarkshire, Scotland) of Wednesday 25th December 1996 [page 29, column 1]:
MICHELLE McNEILL
25/12/75
Happy 21st Grumpy Drawers
21 and never been kissed. Ha! Ha! Lots of love from Mum, Frankie and Marc
XXX
4-: From a television review by Lucy Sweet, published in the Sunday Express (London, England) of Sunday 25th July 1999 [page 85, column 1]:
I’ve never met a Scottish female clinical ethicist before, but they don’t seem like much fun. The main character in the new medical drama LIFE SUPPORT (BBC1, Mon) was Dr Katherine Doone (played by Aisling O’Sullivan), one of those strong professional women who never smiles and has cats. […]
Set in a Glasgow hospital, it started promisingly in the A&E department, with lots of pus and caustic banter. The action was fairly meaty, too, if a bit predictable. The boyfriend of one of the nurses arrived with irreversible brain damage, after throwing himself off a building and landing (quite handily, I thought) on top of an ambulance. So it was time for grumpy-drawers to do some medical ethics.
5-: From Austin Powers: the guy who bagged him, by the British journalist Charlotte Raven (1969-2025), published in The Sunday Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) of Sunday 5th September 1999 [Applause section: page 2, column 2]—reprinted from The Guardian (London and Manchester, England):
Last week, I persuaded my friend Tim—a philosopher—to come with me to see Austin Powers. […]
[…]
At first, I felt embarrassed—the film was as dumb as they come and I didn’t want to lose Tim’s friendship over what, to him, appeared an inexcusable lapse of taste, not to mention a dereliction of my duty as a cultural critic. Then I told old Mr Grumpy Drawers to shove his rigour up his arse. Ignoring his tuts and what-the-hells, I spent the next 60 minutes enjoying Austin Powers in the spirit in which the movie was intended.
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