Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Querulous or discontented.
- adj. Ill-tempered.
- adj. Contrary; fractious.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Querulous; petulant; ill-tempered; cross; fitful.
- Perverse; self-willed; forward; testy.
- Characterized by or indicating discontent, petulancy, or fretfulness.
- Childish; silly; foolish; trifling.
- Synonyms Fretful, Pettish, etc. (see petulant), ill-natured, testy, irritable, waspish.
Wiktionary
- adj. Constantly complaining; fretful, whining.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant.
- adj. Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction.
- adj. obsolete Silly; childish; trifling.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. easily irritated or annoyed
Etymologies
- Late 14th century peyvesshe "capricious, silly", perhaps a corruption of Latin perversus "perverted". The meaning "fretful" develops in the 16th century. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English pevish, possibly from Latin perversus, past participle of perversus; see perverse. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It even has its own pair of Watchmen-style deconstructed superheroes: Mermaid Man, shuffling in peevish slippers toward senility, and his long-suffering sidekick, Barnacle Boy.”
“The word peevish would pretty well describe the condition of Mrs. Alstine, who had a chronic ailment that prevented her enjoying the hospitality of friends.”
“His face was insignificant, his expression peevish, his features without the animation of any high purpose.”
“There is more poignant music in the Primavera, in the weary, indifferent countenances of his lean, neuropathic Madonnas -- Pater calls them "peevish" -- in his Venus of the”
“This question -- which Hohenfels called peevish as he buried himself in his book -- was not answered until we had passed Verviers, Chaudfontaine and Liège.”
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 85, January, 1875
“She is so pale, and so fretful, so peevish, which is not in her nature.”
“Obama held his own and I didn't find him at all "peevish".”
“I defy you to point to a single phrase in that speach that was "peevish" or "entitled.”
“Now I was feeling kind of peevish, my poor old eye felt sad and sore”
“Resignation sinks into a kind of peevish discontent.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘peevish’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Verbal_Advantage
paraphrase, ostensible, digress, uncanny, candor, morose, adept, saturated, pragmatic, congenial, capricious, blatant and 38 more...
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Muse's tacet ,to learn
Music brings silence's to raging thoughts and temperament , calm, as it is our object of definite purpose.
tacet, cadence, tempo, treble clef, penultimate, lexicon, origin, orchestra, kantele, magus, eros, coalesce and 248 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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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 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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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 569 more...
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ficciones's list
encyclopedic
imbroglio, splendour, brilliance, labyrinth, vast, precipice, ebb and flow, tidal, crevasse, resonate, redolent, prudent and 55 more...
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Wuthering Heights
Obscure classic English words in Wuthering Heights you barely understand till you check the dictionary out.
conjecture, tenant, sinewy, peevish, pious, advent, tumult, parlour, villanous, stalwart, soliloquise, gaiters and 6 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...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre
divest, elixir, onerous, disabuse, discern, sordid, erudition, broach, beguile, apologia, elusive, capacious and 7 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
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