peevish

[pee-vish] / ˈpi vɪʃ /

ADJECTIVE

irritable, testy

Synonyms

WEAK

acrimonious angry bad-tempered cantankerous captious carping caviling childish churlish complaining crabbed cranky critical cross crotchety crusty cussed fault-finding fractious fretful fretting grouchy grousing growling grumpy huffy ill-natured mean morose obstinate ogre ornery out-of-sorts pertinacious petulant querulous short-tempered snappy splenetic sulky sullen surly tetchy touchy ugly waspish waspy whining

Antonyms

WEAK

accepting friendly happy pleasant

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Titus hands power to Saturninus, the eldest son of the late Roman emperor, played with a comic spin as a peevish dilettante by Matthew Amendt.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

“He looks startled,” Reed said of the president’s peevish performance.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 14, 2024

Like the peevish alien Roger from American Dad, Sam’s general attitude toward the human world in which he finds himself is equal parts incomprehension and condescension.

From Slate • Oct. 5, 2023

Placing his Howard in a pen with Short's jumpy, cheerfully peevish Oliver is perfect.

From Salon • Aug. 16, 2023

Torak heard sounds .of a scuffle -mare snow trickled dawn -then Wolf gave a peevish growl.

From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver

Vocabulary lists containing peevish

100 Words to Make You Sound Smart

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Even More Negative Words to Describe a Person

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Curmudgeon, Cantankerous and Churlish: Grouchy Words

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