petulant

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“
Had she not far better have been like the others--petulant, wilful, capricious, covetous of admiration, careless of affection, weak-headed, shallow-hearted, and desirous only of that which could not possibly be her own?

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

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

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

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

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • I have hardly seen either of them since the day I came aboard Isobel was petulant, and perhaps a little frightened. —  The Captain of the Kansas
  • Hazel grew impatient, petulant, aggrieved. —  North of Fifty-Three
  • She grew petulant, and those who were in her company found her surprisingly crisp and disagreeable Whenever she could, she skated past Frank and May, and she always laughed as she did so, but there was a false note in her laughter--it did not seem very sincere Paul Rains was a beautiful skater. —  Frank Merriwell's Chums
  • The dreariness of it made B---- petulant and T---- mournfully silent, and finally left me melancholy. —  Golden Lads
  • She showed him the letters of her pupils, exacting, excusing, petulant--sometimes dissatisfied and even ill-tempered, he watched her in the afternoon while she sewed or read. —  In Luck at Last
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

irritable ·  peevish ·  quarrelsome ·  resentful ·  sulky ·  spiteful ·  rebellious ·  impatient ·  scornful ·  haughty ·  irascible ·  imperious
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. Latin petulāns, petulant-, insolent, from petere, to assail; see pet- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French pétulant = Spanish Portuguese Italian petulante, from Latin Petulan(t-)s, forward, pert, saucy, wanton, properly present participle of *petulare, diminutive freq. form of petere, attack, fall upon: see petition.
 

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/ˈpɛtʃjulənt/
by American Heritage

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