peevish

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: peev=ish

CIDE DICTIONARY

peevish, a. [OE. pevische; of uncertain origin, perh. from a word imitative of the noise made by fretful children + -ish.].

•  Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant.  Wordsworth.  [1913 Webster]

  "She is peevish, sullen, froward."  [1913 Webster]
•  Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer.  [1913 Webster]
•  Silly; childish; trifling.  [1913 Webster]

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

Syn. -- Querulous; petulant; cross; ill-tempered; testy; captious; discontented. See Fretful.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

peevish, adj. querulous; irritable.

Derivative

peevishly adv. peevishness n.

Etymology

ME, = foolish, mad, spiteful, etc., of unkn. orig.

THESAURUS

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

ROGET THESAURUS

peevish

Discourtesy

N discourtesy, ill breeding, ill manners, bad manners, ungainly manners, insuavity, uncourteousness rusticity, inurbanity, illiberality, incivility displacency, disrespect, procacity, impudence: barbarism, barbarity, misbehavior, brutality, blackguardism, conduct unbecoming a gentleman, grossieret_e, brusquerie, vulgarity, churlishness, spinosity, perversity, moroseness, sternness, austerity, moodishness, captiousness, cynicism, tartness, acrimony, acerbity, virulence, asperity, scowl, black looks, frown, short answer, rebuff, hard words, contumely, unparliamentary language, personality, bear, bruin, brute, blackguard, beast, unlicked cub, frump, crosspatch, saucebox, crooked stick, grizzly, discourteous, uncourteous, uncourtly, ill-bred, ill-mannered, ill-behaved, ill-conditioned, unbred, unmannerly, unmannered, impolite, unpolite, unpolished, uncivilized, ungenteel, ungentleman-like, ungentlemanly, unladylike, blackguard, vulgar, dedecorous, foul- mouthed foul-spoken, abusive, uncivil, ungracious, unceremonious, cool, pert, forward, obtrusive, impudent, rude, saucy, precocious, repulsive, uncomplaisant, unaccommodating, unneighborly, ungallant, inaffable, ungentle, ungainly, rough, rugged, bluff, blunt, gruff, churlish, boorish, bearish, brutal, brusque, stern, harsh, austere, cavalier, taint, sour, crabbed, sharp, short, trenchant, sarcastic, biting, doggish, caustic, virulent, bitter, acrimonious, venomous, contumelious, snarling, surly, surly as a bear, perverse, grim, sullen, peevish, untactful, impolitic, undiplomatic, artless, discourteously, with discourtesy, with a bad grace.

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.

Sullenness

N sullenness, morosity, spleen, churlishness, irascibility, moodiness, perversity, obstinacy, torvity, spinosity, crabbedness, ill temper, bad temper, ill humor, bad humor, sulks, dudgeon, mumps, dumps, doldrums, fit of the sulks, bouderie, black looks, scowl, grouch, huff, sullen, sulky, ill-tempered, ill-humored, ill-affected, ill- disposed, grouty, in an ill temper, in a bad temper, in a shocking temper, in an ill humor, in a bad humor, in a shocking humor, out of temper, out of humor, knaggy, torvous, crusty, crabbed, sour, sour as a crab, surly, moody, spleenish, spleenly, splenetic, cankered, cross, crossgrained, perverse, wayward, humorsome, restiff, restive, cantankerous, intractable, exceptious, sinistrous, deaf to reason, unaccommodating, rusty, froward, cussed, dogged, grumpy, glum, grim, grum, morose, frumpish, in the sulks, out of sorts, scowling, glowering, growling, grouchy, peevish.