fractious

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“
But they are often very fractious, and it is a bother for a man who was meant for a student.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Inclined to make trouble; unruly.
  2. adjective Having a peevish nature; cranky.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • I admit that we were all very fractious, myself not least You are always the soul of amiability. —  Gaudy Night Dorothy L Sayers -3rd Lord Peter WImsey/Harriet Vane book
  • Fancying that my complaint was merely fractious, the Deputy-Governor—a tall, powerful man—tried to pull them together, and miserably failed. —  Prisoner for Blasphemy
  • They're stubborn and fractious, and few will argue that they're not the most limited form of human communication. —  Magazine - Aeon Authors - 2006 - Issue 06 - Aeon Six
  • Its students felt estranged; its faculty was fractious, aging, and unable to agree whom to hire or how to modernize. —  Boston.com Most Popular
  • Calling the food safety system "fractious," he said the government needs automatic access to the internal inspection records of food producers. —  Top Stories - Google News
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

fretful ·  ill-tempered ·  headstrong ·  disobedient ·  unmanageable ·  mulish ·  querulous ·  restive ·  splenetic ·  choleric ·  sulky ·  unruly
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From fraction, discord (obsolete).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. apparently an alteration (simulating fraction, fracture, etc.) of *fratchous (cf. fratched, restive, vicious, applied to a horse), from fratch, scold, quarrel, squabble, + -ous.
 

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/ˈfrækʃəs/
by American Heritage

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