peevish Meaning, Definition & Usage

adjective satellite easily irritated or annoyed
peckish; nettlesome; testy; tetchy; petulant; cranky; techy; fractious; irritable; scratchy; pettish.
- an incorrigibly fractious young man
- not the least nettlesome of his countrymen

OE. pevische; of uncertain origin, perh. from a word imitative of the noise made by fretful children + -ish.

Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant. "Her peevish babe." Wordsworth.
She is peevish, sullen, froward. Shak.
Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer.
Silly; childish; trifling. Obs.
To send such peevish tokens to a king. Shak.
Syn. -- Querulous; petulant; cross; ill-tempered; testy; captious; discontented. See Fretful.