Surly, moderated after being unwell (3-8)
I believe the answer is:
ill-tempered
'surly' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'moderated after being unwell' is the wordplay.
'moderated' becomes 'tempered' ('tempered' can be similar in meaning to 'moderated'**).
'after' says to put letters next to each other.
'being unwell' becomes 'ill' ('ill' can be similar in meaning to 'unwell').
'tempered' put after 'ill' is 'ILL-TEMPERED'.
(Other definitions for ill-tempered that I've seen before include "Irritable" , "chippy" .)