Fractious

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fractious \Frac"tious\, a. [Cf. Prov. E. frack forward, eager,
     E. freak, fridge; or Prov. E. fratch to squabble, quarrel.]
     Apt to break out into a passion; apt to scold; cross;
     snappish; ugly; unruly; as, a fractious man; a fractious
     horse.
  


     Syn: Snappish; peevish; waspish; cross; irritable; perverse;
          pettish. -- {Frac"tious*ly}, v. -- {Frac"tious*ness}, n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  fractious
       adj 1: stubbornly resistant to authority or control; "a fractious
              animal that would not submit to the harness"; "a
              refractory child" [syn: {refractory}]
       2: easily irritated or annoyed; "an incorrigibly fractious
          young man"; "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen"
          [syn: {cranky}, {irritable}, {nettlesome}, {peevish}, {peckish},
           {pettish}, {petulant}, {testy}, {tetchy}, {techy}]
       3: unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be
          troublesome; "rockets were much too fractious to be tested
          near thigkly populated areas"; "fractious components of a
          communication system"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  134 Moby Thesaurus words for "fractious":
     adversary, adversative, adverse, alien, antagonistic, anti,
     antipathetic, antithetic, at odds, averse, bearish, beyond control,
     bitchy, breachy, cankered, cantankerous, churlish, clashing,
     competitive, complaining, con, conflicting, contradictory,
     contrary, contumacious, counter, crabbed, cranky, cross,
     cross-grained, crusty, cursory, cussed, defiant, differing,
     disaccordant, disagreeable, disagreeing, disinclined, disobedient,
     disputatious, disputing, dissentient, dissenting, enemy, excitable,
     feisty, forced, fretful, hostile, huffish, huffy,
     impatient of control, incorrigible, indisposed, indocile,
     indomitable, inimical, insuppressible, intractable, involuntary,
     irascible, irrepressible, irritable, mean, mutinous, negative,
     noncooperative, objecting, obstinate, obstreperous, obstructive,
     on the barricades, opponent, opposed, opposing, opposite,
     oppositional, oppositive, oppugnant, ornery, out of hand,
     overthwart, peevish, perfunctory, perverse, pettish, petulant,
     proof against, protesting, querulous, rebellious, recalcitrant,
     refractory, reluctant, renitent, repellent, repugnant, resistant,
     resisting, resistive, restive, retardant, retardative, rival,
     shrewish, snappish, spiteful, spleeny, splenetic, sulky, sullen,
     testy, ugly, unbiddable, unconsenting, uncontrollable,
     uncooperative, undisciplined, unfavorable, unfriendly,
     ungovernable, unmalleable, unmanageable, unmoldable, unpropitious,
     unruly, unsubmissive, unwilling, unyielding, up in arms, waspish,
     wild, withstanding