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adj

peevish

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Peevish (adj) means Always grumbling in a childish way about small things that don't matter much.

adj
1
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
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?'" — Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift (1975)
"I would rather figure things out on my own than ask that peevish librarian for help."
3
Describing weather that is windy and rough, or a wind that is cold and biting.
4
Shy and modest in manner.
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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 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”) (ul

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Frequently asked questions

What is the meaning of peevish?
"peevish" (adj) means always grumbling in a childish way about small things that don't matter much.
What is another word for peevish?
Other words for "peevish" include techy, tetchy, testy, petulant, fractious, nettlesome.
What is the opposite of peevish?
Opposites of "peevish" include phlegmatic, genial, unflappable, calm, patient.
What are the different meanings of peevish?
"peevish" has 3 main meanings: 1. Always grumbling in a childish way about small things that don't matter much; 2. Easily annoyed or bad-tempered, often over trivial things; 3. Describing weather that is windy and rough, or a wind that is cold and biting.

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Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · etymology from Wiktionary