Standard Lemma guide

tetchy

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈtɛt͡ʃi/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛtʃi

1

adj

Meaning 1

Synonym of touchy: easily annoyed or irritated, peevish, testy, irascible; also (figurative) extremely sensitive, difficult to manage, use, or work.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Commonwealth, Ireland, Southern-US, UK

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: touchy

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

easily irritated or annoyed

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • an incorrigibly fractious young man
  • not the least nettlesome of his countrymen

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cranky, fractious, irritable, nettlesome, peevish, peckish, pettish, petulant, scratchy, testy, techy

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet and Richard III. Perhaps coined by Shakespeare. Also variously derived from English tetch (“tantrum, fit of anger”); from Scots tache (“blotch, fault”); from Middle English tatch (“blemish”) &c. under influence from touchy.