Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Apt to quarrel; cross; snappish; peevish; fretful; rebellious: as, a fractious child; a fractious temper.
Wiktionary
- adj. given to troublemaking
- adj. irritable; argumentative; quarrelsome
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Apt to break out into a passion; apt to scold; cross; snappish; ugly; unruly.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. easily irritated or annoyed
- adj. unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be troublesome
- adj. stubbornly resistant to authority or control
Etymologies
- fraction (“discord, (now obsolete)”) + -ous (Wiktionary)
- From fraction, discord (obsolete). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“There's an old joke about university faculty politics: the reason it gets so bitter and fractious is because there is so little at stake.”
“I must say that the most enlightened thing you said in your post was, in an odd analogy, that the reason university faculty politics become so bitter and fractious is because there is "... so little at stake," That´s it precisely.”
“The same qualities that enabled her to unify what some described as a fractious campus will serve the nation, and the Constitution, well.”
“As a child myself, growing up in what would charitably be called a fractious household, Mr. Rogers consoled me on the hard stuff I was starting to learn.”
“During what was described as a 'fractious' meeting, MPs criticised Brown for making his announcement on a YouTube broadcast last Tuesday without any reference to them.”
“We do believe that the future of politics will be a future of substance, and a vote for Hillary is a continued support of the kind of fractious politics we've endured for the last several decades.”
“If we've just seen the substitution of one individual for the other, but the policy remains the same, then we're likely to see the same kind of fractious distribute on Capitol Hill, the same kind of disillusion out in the country.”
“And obviously Bush does not want the kind of fractious convention that Ridge's nomination as VP would present.”
“Tom was "fractious," as Roxy called it, and overbearing; Chambers was meek and docile.”
“Final could politely be described as 'fractious', the Dutch side must have wondered what they'd walked into and the game was held up while the Argentineans complained about a plaster cast on one of the Dutch players arms.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fractious’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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My first list
exposition, anecdote, perspicacious, polemic, imbroglio, irascible, vicissitude, venality, payola, amatory, caliginous, avuncular and 5 more...
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phrontistery - f
from phrontistery.info
fustilarian, fusillation, fustian, futurology, fusiform, futurition, fusee, fuscous, fusain, furunculoid, futtock, furibund and 418 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 more...
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 351 more...
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GRE Study guide
Going through the Magoosh website, words I pulled from the verbal section. 2012.
magnanimous, correlate, anglicized, simulacrum, tantamount, obsequiousness, subterfuge, vehement, vociferous, benign, concomitant, veracity and 83 more...
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unyielding
refractory, unmanageable, ungovernable, obstinate, contumacious, stubborn, unyielding, unruly, perverse, refractoriness, inanimates, contrary and 12 more...
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If You Can't Say Anything Nice
Negative attributes or actions.
biased, cantankerous, caustic, contumacious, dilatory, disdain, duplicitous, fastidious, fractious, glower, haughty, imperious and 22 more...
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Previous GRE
churlish, martinet, polyglot, aplomb, dissembler, hack, dissimilitude, whit, histrionics, prevarication, pithy, aphorism and 16 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 481 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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Poetic
the blue hour, dinner-pail, long-drawn, pettifog, spoonmeat, crawler, eructate, voiced, medial, tessellated, eyeballs, amphigory and 48 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fractious.

tonya (esp. of children) easily upset and angered, often due to tiredness Aug 14, 2008