fractious

fractious
    adj 1: stubbornly resistant to authority or control; "a
           fractious animal that would not submit to the harness";
           "a refractory child" [syn: {fractious}, {refractory},
           {recalcitrant}]
    2: easily irritated or annoyed; "an incorrigibly fractious young
       man"; "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen" [syn:
       {cranky}, {fractious}, {irritable}, {nettlesome}, {peevish},
       {peckish}, {pettish}, {petulant}, {scratchy}, {testy},
       {tetchy}, {techy}]
    3: unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be
       troublesome; "rockets were much too fractious to be tested
       near thickly populated areas"; "fractious components of a
       communication system"
    

Fractious \Frac"tious\, a. [Cf. Prov. E. frack forward, eager,
   E. freak, fridge; or Prov. E. fratch to squabble, quarrel.]
   Apt to break out into a passion; apt to scold; cross;
   snappish; ugly; unruly; as, a fractious man; a fractious
   horse.

   Syn: Snappish; peevish; waspish; cross; irritable; perverse;
        pettish. -- {Frac"tious*ly}, v. -- {Frac"tious*ness}, n.
        [1913 Webster]
    

134 Moby Thesaurus words for "fractious":
      adversary, adversative, adverse, alien, antagonistic, anti,
      antipathetic, antithetic, at odds, averse, bearish, beyond control,
      bitchy, breachy, cankered, cantankerous, churlish, clashing,
      competitive, complaining, con, conflicting, contradictory,
      contrary, contumacious, counter, crabbed, cranky, cross,
      cross-grained, crusty, cursory, cussed, defiant, differing,
      disaccordant, disagreeable, disagreeing, disinclined, disobedient,
      disputatious, disputing, dissentient, dissenting, enemy, excitable,
      feisty, forced, fretful, hostile, huffish, huffy,
      impatient of control, incorrigible, indisposed, indocile,
      indomitable, inimical, insuppressible, intractable, involuntary,
      irascible, irrepressible, irritable, mean, mutinous, negative,
      noncooperative, objecting, obstinate, obstreperous, obstructive,
      on the barricades, opponent, opposed, opposing, opposite,
      oppositional, oppositive, oppugnant, ornery, out of hand,
      overthwart, peevish, perfunctory, perverse, pettish, petulant,
      proof against, protesting, querulous, rebellious, recalcitrant,
      refractory, reluctant, renitent, repellent, repugnant, resistant,
      resisting, resistive, restive, retardant, retardative, rival,
      shrewish, snappish, spiteful, spleeny, splenetic, sulky, sullen,
      testy, ugly, unbiddable, unconsenting, uncontrollable,
      uncooperative, undisciplined, unfavorable, unfriendly,
      ungovernable, unmalleable, unmanageable, unmoldable, unpropitious,
      unruly, unsubmissive, unwilling, unyielding, up in arms, waspish,
      wild, withstanding