What does peevish mean?

Definitions for peevish
ˈpi vɪʃpeev·ish

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word peevish.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. cranky, fractious, irritable, nettlesome, peevish, peckish, pettish, petulant, scratchy, testy, tetchy, techyadjective

    easily irritated or annoyed

    "an incorrigibly fractious young man"; "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen"

Wiktionary

  1. peevishadjective

    Constantly complaining; fretful, whining.

  2. Etymology: Late 14th century peyvesshe "capricious, silly", perhaps a corruption of Latin perversus "perverted". The meaning "fretful" develops in the 16th century.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. PEEVISHadjective

    Petulant; waspish; easily offended; irritable; irascible; soon angry; perverse; morose; querulous; full of expressions of discontent; hard to please.

    Etymology: This word Franciscus Junius, with more reason than he commonly discovers, supposes to be formed by corruption from perverse; Stephen Skinner rather derives it from beeish, as we say waspish.

    For what can breed more peevish incongruities,
    Than man to yield to female lamentations. Philip Sidney.

    She is peevish, sullen, froward,
    Proud, disobedient, stubborn, lacking duty. William Shakespeare.

    If thou hast the metal of a king,
    Being wrong’d as we are by this peevish town,
    Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,
    As we will ours, against these saucy walls. William Shakespeare.

    I will not presume
    To send such peevish tokens to a king. William Shakespeare.

    Those deserve to be doubly laugh’d at, that are peevish and angry for nothing to no purpose. Roger L'Estrange.

    Neither will it be satire or peevish invective to affirm, that infidelity and vice are not much diminished. Jonathan Swift.

ChatGPT

  1. peevish

    Peevish generally refers to a person who is easily irritated, annoyed, or of a fretful disposition. It describes someone with a bad temper, or who is often complaining or difficult to please. This may be due to either a temporary state or a permanent character trait.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Peevishadjective

    habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant

  2. Peevishadjective

    expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer

  3. Peevishadjective

    silly; childish; trifling

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Peevish

    pēv′ish, adj. habitually fretful: easily annoyed: hard to please: showing ill-nature: childish.—adv. Peev′ishly.—n. Peev′ishness. [Prob. imit. of the puling of fretful infants.]

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of peevish in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of peevish in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Popularity rank by frequency of use

peevish#100000#112226#333333

Translations for peevish

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"peevish." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/peevish>.

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