be peevish
1Peevish — Pee vish, a. [OE. pevische; of uncertain origin, perh. from a word imitative of the noise made by fretful children + ish.] 1. Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant. Her peevish babe.… …
2peevish — index fractious, froward, perverse, petulant, querulous, resentful, restive, sensitive (easily affected) …
3peevish — late 14c., peyvesshe perverse, capricious, silly, of uncertain origin, possibly modeled on L. perversus reversed, perverse, pp. of pervertere to turn about (see PERVERT (Cf. pervert)). Meaning cross, fretful first recorded 1520s …
4peevish — irritable, fractious, snappish, waspish, petulant, pettish, huffy, fretful, querulous Analogous words: captious, carping, caviling, faultfinding, *critical …
5peevish — [adj] irritable, testy acrimonious, angry, bad tempered, cantankerous, captious, carping, caviling, childish, churlish, complaining, crabbed*, cranky, critical, cross, crotchety*, crusty*, cussed, fault finding, fractious, fretful, fretting,… …
6peevish — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ irritable. DERIVATIVES peevishly adverb peevishness noun. ORIGIN originally in the sense «foolish, mad, spiteful»: of unknown origin …
7peevish — [pē′vish] adj. [ME pevische < ?] 1. hard to please; irritable; fretful; cross 2. showing ill humor or impatience, as a glance or remark peevishly adv. peevishness n …
8peevish — peevishly, adv. peevishness, n. /pee vish/, adj. 1. cross, querulous, or fretful, as from vexation or discontent: a peevish youngster. 2. showing annoyance, irritation, or bad mood: a peevish reply; a peevish frown. 3. perverse or obstinate.… …
9peevish — [[t]pi͟ːvɪʃ[/t]] ADJ GRADED Someone who is peevish is bad tempered. Aubrey had slept little and that always made him peevish... She glared down at me with a peevish expression on her face. Syn: bad tempered Derived words: peevishly ADV GRADED ADV …
10peevish — adj. irritable peevish about * * * [ piːvɪʃ] [ irritable ] peevish about …
