Word Study
fretful
CIDE DICTIONARY
fretful, a. [See 2d Fret.].
Disposed to fret; ill-humored; peevish; angry; in a state of vexation; as, a fretful temper.
Syn. -- Peevish; ill-humored; ill-natured; irritable; waspish; captious; petulant; splenetic; spleeny; passionate; angry.
OXFORD DICTIONARY
fretful, adj. visibly anxious, distressed, or irritated.
Derivative
fretfully adv. fretfulness n.
THESAURUS
fretful
Jeremianic, abrupt, agitated, antsy, antsy-pantsy, anxious, bad-tempered, breathless, bustling, captious, carping, catty, caviling, chafing, choleric, complaining, contrary, crabby, cranky, critical, cross, curt, disagreeable, eager, edgy, excited, faultfinding, fidgety, fluttering, fluttery, fractious, fretting, fussing, fussy, grumpy, hasty, hopped-up, howling, huffy, ill-natured, ill-tempered, impatient, impetuous, in a lather, in a stew, in a sweat, irascible, irritable, jumpy, lamentive, moanful, moody, mournful, nagging, naggy, on edge, peevish, perverse, pettish, petulant, plaintive, plangent, puling, querulous, resentful, restive, restless, short, short-tempered, shrewish, snappish, sorrowful, splenetic, squirming, squirmy, sulky, testy, tetchy, touchy, turbulent, ululant, uneasy, unpatient, unquiet, unsettled, vexed, vixenish, vixenly, wailful, waspish, whimpering, whining, whinyROGET THESAURUS
fretful
Irascibility
N irascibility, irascibleness, temper, crossness, susceptibility, procacity, petulance, irritability, tartness, acerbity, protervity, pugnacity, excitability, bad temper, fiery temper, crooked temper, irritable, temper, genus irritabile, hot blood, ill humor, asperity, churlishness, huff, a word and a blow, Sir Fretful Plagiary, brabbler, Tartar, shrew, vixen, virago, termagant, dragon, scold, Xantippe, porcupine, spitfire, fire eater, fury, irascible, bad-tempered, ill-tempered, irritable, susceptible, excitable, thin-skinned, fretful, fidgety, on the fret, hasty, overhasty, quick, warm, hot, testy, touchy, techy, tetchy, like touchwood, like tinder, huffy, pettish, petulant, waspish, snappish, peppery, fiery, passionate, choleric, shrewish, sudden and quick in quarrel, querulous, captious, moodish, quarrelsome, contentious, disputatious, pugnacious, cantankerous, exceptious, restiff, churlish, cross, cross as crabs, cross as two sticks, cross as a cat, cross as a dog, cross as the tongs, fractious, peevish, acari=atre, in a bad temper, sulky, angry, resentful, resentive, vindictive, Int, pish!, a vieux comptes nouvelles disputes, quamvis tegatur proditur vultu furor, vino tortus et ira.For further exploring for "fretful" in Webster Dictionary Online