Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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adj
Constantly complaining, especially in a childish way due to insignificant matters; fretful, whiny.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: unpeevish
adj
Quick to become bad-tempered or cross, especially due to insignificant matters; irritable, pettish, petulant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: querulous, atrabilious, bad-tempered, bilious, bitchy, brainish, cantankerous, carnaptious, choleric, crabbit, crabby, cranky, crotchety, dyspeptic, edgy, fantoddish, fiery, fractious, fretful, grumpy, grotchy, grouchy, hissy, hot-livered, hot-tempered, hotheaded, huffy, humpy, ill-natured, ill-tempered, irascible, irritable, liverish, out of sorts, ornery (chiefly US)}, peevish, pettish, petulant, prickly, quick-tempered, raspy, ratty, short-tempered, snappish, snappy, snippety, snippish, snippy, snitchy, splenetic, stressy, surly, temperamental, testy, tetchy, tetty, thin-skinned, thorny, touchy, twitchy, umbrageous, volatile, waspish
Antonyms: unpeevish
adj
Of weather: blustery, windy; also, of wind: cold and strong; bitter, sharp.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Canada, Northern-England, figuratively
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Coy, modest.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Foolish, silly.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Harmful, injurious; also, mischievous; or malicious, spiteful.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: harmful, damaging, deleterious, detrimental, hurtful, inimical, injurious, mischievous, nocent, nocuous, noxious, noisome, prejudicial, scathand, scathel, sullen, venom
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Impulsive and unpredictable; capricious, fickle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Obstinately in the wrong; perverse, stubborn.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: adamant, ardent, grim, bent on, bloody-minded, bullheaded, certain, chronic, confirmed, determined, diehard, dogged, hard-hearted, hard-nosed, hardheaded, headstrong, immovable, incalcitrant, inflexible, irrefragable, insistent, intractable, intransigent, intrepid, inveterate, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, obstreperous, peevish, peremptory, persistent, pertinacious, pigheaded, recalcitrant, refractory, resolute, resolved, rigid, self-willed, stalwart, staunch, steadfast, steady, stubborn, stubborn as a mule, sullen, tenacious, terminal, thran, thwart, tough, truculent, unbending, uncompromising, unyielding, vehement, wilful, willful
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Out of one's mind; mad.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Of a thing: evoking a feeling of distaste, horror, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Clever, skilful.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Northern-England, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adv
Synonym of peevishly (“in a peevish manner: whiningly; irritably, petulantly; etc.”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: peevishly
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
easily irritated or annoyed
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: cranky, fractious, irritable, nettlesome, peckish, pettish, petulant, scratchy, testy, tetchy, techy
Antonyms: none provided
History
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.
Across languages
33 source translations are retained for this English entry.
