Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Peevish

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." Wordsworth.

She is peevish, sullen, froward. Shak.

2. Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer.

3. Silly; childish; trifling. [Obs.]

To send such peevish tokens to a king. Shak.

Syn. — Querulous; petulant; cross; ill-tempered; testy; captious; discontented. See Fretful.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article.