Fretful

3 definitions found

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

  Fretful \Fret"ful\, a. [See 2d {Fret}.]
     Disposed to fret; ill-humored; peevish; angry; in a state of
     vexation; as, a fretful temper. -- {Fret"ful*ly}, adv. --
     {Fret"ful*ness}, n.
  
     Syn: Peevish; ill-humored; ill-natured; irritable; waspish;


          captious; petulant; splenetic; spleeny; passionate;
          angry.
  
     Usage: {Fretful}, {Peevish}, {Cross}. These words all
            indicate an unamiable working and expression of
            temper. Peevish marks more especially the inward
            spirit: a peevish man is always ready to find fault.
            Fretful points rather to the outward act, and marks a
            complaining impatience: sickly children are apt to be
            fretful. Crossness is peevishness mingled with
            vexation or anger.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  fretful
       adj 1: unable to relax or be still; "a constant fretful stamping of
              hooves"; "itchy for excitement"; "a restless child"
              [syn: {fidgety}, {itchy}, {restless}]
       2: habitually complaining; "a whining child" [syn: {querulous},
           {whiney}, {whining(a)}, {whiny}]

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

  93 Moby Thesaurus words for "fretful":
     Jeremianic, abrupt, agitated, antsy, antsy-pantsy, anxious,
     bad-tempered, breathless, bustling, captious, carping, catty,
     caviling, chafing, choleric, complaining, contrary, crabby, cranky,
     critical, cross, curt, disagreeable, eager, edgy, excited,
     faultfinding, fidgety, fluttering, fluttery, fractious, fretting,
     fussing, fussy, grumpy, hasty, hopped-up, howling, huffy,
     ill-natured, ill-tempered, impatient, impetuous, in a lather,
     in a stew, in a sweat, irascible, irritable, jumpy, lamentive,
     moanful, moody, mournful, nagging, naggy, on edge, peevish,
     perverse, pettish, petulant, plaintive, plangent, puling,
     querulous, resentful, restive, restless, short, short-tempered,
     shrewish, snappish, sorrowful, splenetic, squirming, squirmy,
     sulky, testy, tetchy, touchy, turbulent, ululant, uneasy,
     unpatient, unquiet, unsettled, vexed, vixenish, vixenly, wailful,
     waspish, whimpering, whining, whiny