petulant

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: pet=u=lant

CIDE DICTIONARY

petulant, a. [L. petulans, -antis, prop., making slight attacks upon, from a lost dim. of petere to fall upon, to attack: cf. F. pétulant. See Petition.].

•  Forward; pert; insolent; wanton.  Burton.  [1913 Webster]
•  Capriciously fretful; characterized by ill-natured freakishness; irritable.  Macaulay.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Irritable; ill-humored; peevish; cross; fretful; querulous.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

petulant, adj. peevishly impatient or irritable.

Derivative

petulance n. petulantly adv.

Etymology

F p{eacute}tulant f. L petulans -antis f. petere seek

THESAURUS

petulant

Jeremianic, arbitrary, bad-tempered, beefing, bellyaching, bilious, bitching, cantankerous, capricious, captious, catty, choleric, complaining, complaintful, crabbed, crabbing, crabby, cranky, croaking, cross, crotchety, disappointed, discontented, disgruntled, displeased, dissatisfied, envious, fanciful, fantasied, fantastic, faultfinding, flaky, fractious, freakish, fretful, griping, grouchy, grousing, growling, grumbling, grumpy, harebrained, howling, huffish, huffy, humorsome, ill-humored, ill-tempered, impatient, irascible, irritable, kinky, lamentive, maggoty, malcontent, malcontented, moanful, moody, motiveless, mournful, murmuring, muttering, nagging, naggy, notional, out of humor, peevish, perverse, pettish, plaintive, plangent, puling, querulant, querulous, quirky, rebellious, resentful, restive, restless, shrewish, snappish, sorrowful, sour, splenetic, sulky, temperamental, testy, ululant, unaccepting, unaccommodating, uneasy, unfulfilled, ungratified, unhappy, unreasonable, unrestrained, unsatisfied, vagarious, vagrant, vixenish, vixenly, wailful, wanton, waspish, wayward, whimpering, whimsical, whining, whiny

ROGET THESAURUS

petulant

Vigor

N vigor, power, force, boldness, raciness, intellectual, force, spirit, point, antithesis, piquance, piquancy, verve, glow, fire, warmth, strong language, gravity, sententiousness, elevation, loftiness, sublimity, eloquence, command of words, command of language, vigorous, nervous, powerful, forcible, trenchant, incisive, impressive, sensational, spirited, lively, glowing, sparkling, racy, bold, slashing, pungent, piquant, full of point, pointed, pithy, antithetical, sententious, lofty, elevated, sublime, eloquent, vehement, petulant, impassioned, poetic, in glowing terms, in good set terms, in no measured terms, thoughts that breath and words that burn.

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.