Definitions

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.

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

From Los Angeles Times

Even when he was trying to sound upbeat, the river of resentment would burble up in his mannerisms and his peevish voice.

From Salon

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

From Salon

“He was all peevish that you always take the car because of your, what did he say? Oh yeah, selfish nature.”

From Literature

Declaration’s note back to me was prickly, bordering on peevish.

From Literature