Definition of PEEVISH

peevish

Meanings

Adjective Satellite

  • easily irritated or annoyed

Adj

  • Constantly complaining, especially in a childish way due to insignificant matters; fretful, whiny.
  • Quick to become bad-tempered or cross, especially due to insignificant matters; irritable, pettish, petulant.
  • Of weather: blustery, windy; also, of wind: cold and strong; bitter, sharp.
  • Coy, modest.
  • Foolish, silly.
  • Harmful, injurious; also, mischievous; or malicious, spiteful.
  • Impulsive and unpredictable; capricious, fickle.
  • Obstinately in the wrong; perverse, stubborn.
  • Out of one's mind; mad.
  • Of a thing: evoking a feeling of distaste, horror, etc.
  • Clever, skilful.

Adv

  • Synonym of peevishly (“in a peevish manner: whiningly; irritably, petulantly; etc.”).

Origin / Etymology

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English pievish, peuysche, pevish, pevysh (“capricious, wilful; perverse, wayward”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from one of the following:
* From an unattested Old French word, from Latin perversus (“corrupted, perverted, subverted; overthrown”), the perfect passive participle of pervertō (“to corrupt, subvert; to overthrow”), from per- (prefix meaning ‘intensively, thoroughly’) + vertō (“to turn; to turn upside down, overturn, overthrow, subvert”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to rotate; to turn”)). However, the Oxford English Dictionary says this derivation “presents some formal difficulties”.
* From Middle French *expaive + -ish (similar to; somewhat, rather). *Expaive is an unattested variant of Middle French espave, Old French espave (“(adjective) of an animal: stray; of a person: foreign; (noun) flotsam; lost property”) (referring to the behaviour of stray animals; modern French épave), from Latin expavidus (“extremely frightened or horrified”), from ex- (intensifying prefix) + pavidus (“fearful, terrified; quaking, trembling; shy, timid”) (from paveō (“to be afraid; fear; to quake or tremble with fear”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *paw- (“to hit, strike”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives)).
The adverb is derived from the adjective.

Synonyms

adamant, ardent, atrabilious, bad-tempered, bemoaning, bent on, bilious, bitchy, bloody-minded, brainish, bullheaded, cantankerous, carnaptious, carping, certain, chronic, complaining, confirmed, crabbit, crabby, cranky, crotchety, damaging, deleterious, determined, detrimental, diehard, dogged, dyspeptic, edgy, fantoddish, fiery, fractious, fretful, gripeful, gripey, grotchy, grouchy, grumbling, grumpy, hard-hearted, hard-nosed, hardheaded, harmful, headstrong, hissy, hot-livered, hot-tempered, hotheaded, huffy, humpy, hurtful, ill-natured, ill-tempered, immovable, incalcitrant, inflexible, inimical, injurious, insistent, intractable, intransigent, intrepid, inveterate, irascible, irrefragable, irritable, knappish, kvetchy, mardy, mischievous, moaning, mulish, nettlesome, nocent, nocuous, noisome, noodgy, noxious, obdurate, obstinate, obstreperous, ornery (chiefly US)}, out of sorts, peckish, peevish, peevishly, peremptory, persistent, pertinacious, pettish, petulant, pigheaded, plaintful, prejudicial, prickly, querulous, quick-tempered, raspy, ratty, recalcitrant, refractory, resolute, resolved, rigid, scathand, scathel, scratchy, self-willed, short-tempered, snappish, snappy, snippety, snippish, snippy, snitchy, sooky, spleeny, splenetic, stalwart, staunch, steadfast, steady, stressy, stubborn, stubborn as a mule, sulky, sullen, surly, techy, tenacious, terminal, testy, tetchy, tetty, thin-skinned, thorny, thran, thwart, touchy, tough, truculent, twitchy, umbrageous, unbending, uncompromising, unyielding, vehement, venom, waspish, whingy, whining, whiny, wilful, willful

Scrabble Score: 15

peevish is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
peevish is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
peevish is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 16

peevish is a valid Words With Friends word