peevish
11 synonyms and 5 antonyms for peevish, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Adj — Always grumbling in a childish way about small things that don't matter much.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. adj
Always grumbling in a childish way about small things that don't matter much.
“Due to the long wait, there were several peevish patients in the doctor’s waiting room.”
2. adj
Easily annoyed or bad-tempered, often over trivial things.
“They used to tell one about a kid asking his grumpy old man when they were walking to the park, 'What's the name of this flower, Papa?' And the old guy is peevish and he yells, 'How should I know? Am I in the millinery business?'”
Opposites
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...
Full origin of peevish →