peevish

Meaning

Adj

1. Constantly complaining, especially in a childish way due to insignificant matters; fretful, whiny.
2. Quick to become bad-tempered or cross, especially due to insignificant matters; irritable, pettish, petulant.
3. (Canada, Northern-England, figuratively) Of weather: blustery, windy; also, of wind: cold and strong; bitter, sharp.
4. (obsolete) Coy, modest.
5. (obsolete) Foolish, silly.
6. (obsolete) Harmful, injurious; also, mischievous; or malicious, spiteful.
7. (obsolete) Impulsive and unpredictable; capricious, fickle.
8. (obsolete) Obstinately in the wrong; perverse, stubborn.
9. (obsolete) Out of one's mind; mad.
10. (obsolete) Of a thing: evoking a feeling of distaste, horror, etc.
11. (Northern-England, obsolete) Clever, skilful.

Adv

Synonym of peevishly (“in a peevish manner: whiningly; irritably, petulantly; etc.”).

Opposite of

unpeevish

Synonyms

petulant

pettish

irritable

testy

fretful

morose

cross

surly

discontented

cranky

ill-tempered

grouchy

querulous

cantankerous

touchy

shrewish

fractious

huffy

tetchy

splenetic

complaining

scratchy

quarrelsome

sullen

capricious

disagreeable

cross-grained

crusty

waspish

wayward

techy

grumpy

sulky

snappish

crabbed

churlish

quick-tempered

peckish

nettlesome

vixenish

crabby

dismal

currish

bad-tempered

curmudgeonly

cry

😢

brutal

ill-humored

boring

austere

Translations

kregel

slechtgehumeurd

verdrießlich

balorig

maussade

gemelijk

aksi

huysuz

irritabile

irritadiço

verdrossen

verdrietig

☹️

malhumorado

aalwarig

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpiːvɪʃ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: pevische

Cognate with Scots: pevis

Cognate with Scots: pew

Cognate with French: épave

In summary

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.