peevish

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
peevish
    adj 1: 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}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Peevish \Pee"vish\, a. [OE. pevische; of uncertain origin, perh.
   from a word imitative of the noise made by fretful children +
   -ish.]
   1. Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to
      please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant. "Her peevish
      babe." --Wordsworth.
      [1913 Webster]

            She is peevish, sullen, froward.      --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable
      dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Silly; childish; trifling. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            To send such peevish tokens to a king. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Querulous; petulant; cross; ill-tempered; testy;
        captious; discontented. See {Fretful}.
        [1913 Webster]
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
92 Moby Thesaurus words for "peevish":
      Jeremianic, acrimonious, bad-tempered, beefing, bellyaching,
      bilious, bitching, cantankerous, captious, carping, catty,
      caviling, cavilling, churlish, complaining, complaintful, crabbed,
      crabbing, crabby, cranky, critical, croaking, cross, crotchety,
      crusty, disappointed, discontented, disgruntled, displeased,
      dissatisfied, envious, faultfinding, fractious, fretful, griping,
      grouchy, grousing, growling, grumbling, grumpish, grumpy, howling,
      huffy, ill-humored, ill-natured, ill-tempered, irritable,
      lamentive, malcontent, malcontented, moanful, mournful, murmuring,
      muttering, nagging, naggy, out of humor, pettish, petulant,
      plaintive, plangent, puling, querulant, querulous, rebellious,
      resentful, restive, restless, short-tempered, shrewish, snappish,
      sorrowful, splenetic, sulky, testy, tetchy, touchy, ululant,
      unaccepting, unaccommodating, uneasy, unfulfilled, ungratified,
      unhappy, unsatisfied, vixenish, vixenly, wailful, waspish,
      whimpering, whining, whiny

    

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