Word Study
testy
CIDE DICTIONARY
testy, a. [OF. testu obstinate, headstrong, F. têtu, fr. OF. teste the head, F. tête. See Test a cupel.].
Fretful; peevish; petulant; easily irritated. [1913 Webster]
"Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch
Under your testy humor?" [1913 Webster]
Under your testy humor?" [1913 Webster]
"I was displeased with myself; I was testy." [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
testy, adj. (testier, testiest) irritable, touchy.
Derivative
testily adv. testiness n.
Etymology
ME f. AF testif f. OF teste head (as TEST(2))
THESAURUS
testy
bad-tempered, bearish, bitchy, cankered, cantankerous, captious, choleric, churlish, contentious, crabbed, crabby, cranky, cross, cross-grained, crotchety, crusty, cussed, disagreeable, edgy, excitable, feisty, fractious, fretful, grouchy, grumpy, hot-tempered, huffish, huffy, ill-humored, ill-tempered, irascible, irritable, mean, on edge, ornery, peevish, perverse, petulant, pissed off, quarrelsome, querulous, quick-tempered, short-tempered, snappish, spiteful, spleeny, splenetic, tetchy, touchy, ugly, waspishROGET THESAURUS
testy
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 "testy" in Webster Dictionary Online