Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality of being fractious; a fractious or snappish temper.

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

  • noun The quality of being fractious; trouble-making; unruliness.
  • noun A peevish or cranky nature.

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

  • noun the trait of being prone to disobedience and lack of discipline

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See fractious

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Examples

  • Sure black is cool, and night is far less stodgy than sunlit cities – but fractiousness and contrariness were not the source of your reversals in characters like Martin Martel, or the initial ‘illusion’ so to speak that the good guys wore black in Recluce.

    Being A Realist « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website 2010

  • Again he strove for playfulness of speech, but it was too great a moment for even love fractiousness to enter in.

    Chapter XXIV 2010

  • But the incivility that we're seeing, the fractiousness of our political life, the nativism that we're seeing right now - it's a very angry country.

    More Americans Giving Up On The American Dream 2010

  • Even with the big gains Wednesday, analysts said the fractiousness isn't likely to soon disappear.

    U.S. Stocks Rebound On Housing News 2010

  • For all the fractiousness and infighting that constantly takes place in the Jewish world, the vast majority of those whose voices are heard so loudly and often piercingly in the discourse are closely united by their history and culture, a history that begins and ends in the Shtetls of Europe.

    Understanding the Sephardi-Ashkenazi Split David Shasha 2010

  • For all the fractiousness and infighting that constantly takes place in the Jewish world, the vast majority of those whose voices are heard so loudly and often piercingly in the discourse are closely united by their history and culture, a history that begins and ends in the Shtetls of Europe.

    David Shasha: Understanding the Sephardi-Ashkenazi Split 2010

  • These battles frequently spill over to become global contests, particularly in Israel where the Ashkenazi ideal of fractiousness has been taken to absurd extremes.

    David Shasha: Understanding the Sephardi-Ashkenazi Split 2010

  • Even with the big gains Wednesday, analysts said the fractiousness isn't likely to soon disappear.

    U.S. Stocks Rebound On Housing News 2010

  • Unlike in the U.S., where a single government administered the tests, CEBS has had to herd 20 different nations to the finish line, and that fractiousness has undercut transparency about the test methodology.

    European Banks Brace for Stress Tests 2010

  • These battles frequently spill over to become global contests, particularly in Israel where the Ashkenazi ideal of fractiousness has been taken to absurd extremes.

    Understanding the Sephardi-Ashkenazi Split David Shasha 2010

Comments

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  • From p. 7 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: "His speaking voice, a gruff husky tenor, added to the impression of fractiousness he conveyed."

    September 29, 2012