Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered; peevish.
  • adjective Contemptuous in speech or behavior.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Manifesting peevish impatience, irritation, or caprice; peevishly pert or saucy; peevish; capricious: said of persons or things: as, a petulant youth; a petulant answer.
  • Synonyms Petulant, Peevish, Fretful, Pettish, Cross, irritable, irascible, ill-humored, snappish, crusty, choleric. The first five words apply to an ill-governed temper or its manifestation. Petulant expresses a quick impatience, often of a temporary or capricious sort, with bursts of feeling. Peevish expresses that which is more permanent in character, more frequent in manifestation, more sour, and more an evidence of weakness. Fretful applies to one who is soon vexed, of a discontented disposition, or ready to complain, as a sick child. Pettish implies that the impatience, vexation, or testiness is over matters so small that the mood is peculiarly undignified or unworthy. Cross applies especially to the temper, but often to permanent character: as, a cross dog; it often includes anger or sulkiness. Crossness as a mood may be more quiet than the others. See captious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Forward; pert; insolent; wanton.
  • adjective Capriciously fretful; characterized by ill-natured freakishness; irritable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective childishly irritable
  • adjective obsolete forward; pert; insolent; wanton.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective easily irritated or annoyed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin petulāns, petulant-, insolent, from petere, to assail; see pet- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French, from Latin petulans, akin to petere.

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Examples

  • Jones declined to characterize Astro as "arrogant," saying he might use the term "petulant" instead.

    NYDN Rss DAVID HINCKLEY 2011

  • Or did you just pretend to miss it, because it feels SO DAMN GOOD to engage in petulant shrieking?

    Matthew Yglesias » Government for Sale 2010

  • Or did you just pretend to miss it, because it feels SO DAMN GOOD to engage in petulant shrieking?

    Matthew Yglesias » The War 2009

  • Instead they are engaging in petulant revenge canceling even national security hearings just to give the Democrats, and the American people, the finger.

    Matthew Yglesias » GOP Never Took Yes for an Answer 2010

  • To call him petulant is kind of like the pot calling the kettle black.

    MN GOP calls Franken-Lieberman incident an 'embarrassment' 2009

  • Indeed it's been nearly a full week since the cowardly hate-mongering "satirist" Coulter posted Cornell's private information on the front page of her website in petulant retaliation for an article Cornell wrote here on BRAD BLOG.

    "So You're the Little Woman Who Wrote the Blogpost That Started This Great War." KaneCitizen 2005

  • And admit it, petulant is NOT a word that you would have in your vocabulary.

    Think Progress » Condi Throws Stones From Her Glass House 2005

  • Indeed it's been nearly a full week since the cowardly hate-mongering "satirist" Coulter posted Cornell's private information on the front page of her website in petulant retaliation for an article Cornell wrote here on BRAD BLOG.

    Archive 2005-12-01 KaneCitizen 2005

  • The islands show dimly grey amid a welter of grey water, breaking angrily in short, petulant seas, which buffet boats confusedly and put the helmsmen's skill to a high test.

    Priscilla's Spies George A. Birmingham 1907

  • I know this won’t be a popular view among many Obama fans who did criticize him for this were they called petulant? but I do think he did the right thing.

    Hmmm « BuzzMachine 2008

Comments

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  • petulant: impatient.

    petulante: vane.

    January 10, 2008

  • July 30, 2008

  • A wig in this heat. Oh, hell. I tried not to look petulant. After all, it would be better to have an itchy head than to be identified as a woman who associated with vampires. -Charlaine Harris, Living Dead in Dallas

    December 11, 2010

  • Hm. "Petulant" is actually a meaner word than it sounds.

    January 17, 2012

  • Sulky, bad tempered or rude

    July 8, 2014

  • adjective: easily irritated or annoyed

    Although the three year old was often described as mature for his age, he was petulant and whiny whenever his father forgot to remove the crust from his sandwiches.

    October 20, 2016