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Fretful; peevish; moody; capricious; inclined to ill temper. "A pettish kind of humor." Sterne. -- Pet"tish*ly, adv. -- Pet"tish*ness, n.

Capriciously fretful; characterized by ill-natured freakishness; irritable. "Petulant moods." Macaulay.

Fretful excitement. [Obs. or Local] See Feaze, n.

Expressing complaint; fretful; whining; as, a querulous tone of voice.

Displaying, or affected with, spleen; angry; fretful; melancholy. Myself have calmed their spleenful mutiny. Shak. Then rode Geraint, a little spleenful yet, Across the bridge that spann'd the dry ravine. Tennyson.

Spleeny; affected with spleen; fretful. -- Spleen"ish*ly, adv. -- Spleen"ish*ness, n.

Irritable; peevish; fretful. Spleeny Lutheran, and not wholesome to Our cause. Shak.

Affected with spleen; malicious; spiteful; peevish; fretful. "Splenetic guffaw." G. Eliot. You humor me when I am sick; Why not when I am splenetic Pope.

Peevish; tettish; fretful; -- said of a child. See Tettish. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

Peevish; fretful; irritable.

Fretful; peevish; pettish; cross. [Prov. Eng.]

icularly with regard to the passions and affections; as, a calm temper; a hasty temper; a fretful temper. Remember with what mild And gracious temper he both heared and judged. Milton. The consequents of a certain ethical temper. J. H. Newman.

In a testy manner; fretfully; peevishly; with petulance.

The quality or state of being testy; fretfulness; petulance. Testiness is a disposition or aptness to be angry. Locke.

Fretful; peevish; petulant; easily irritated. Must I observe you must I stand and crouch Under your testy humor Shak. I was displeased with myself; I was testy. Latimer.

To feel or express undue care and anxiety; to manifest disquietude or pain; to be fretful; to chafe; as, the child worries; the horse worries.