feisty

What it means

1. Tenacious, energetic, spunky.

   spirited and feisty

   2 more examples

   She gave a feisty response during the debate.

   The feisty puppy barked at everyone.

2. Belligerent; prepared to stand and fight, especially in spite of relatively small stature or some other disadvantage.

   small but feisty

   1 more example

   The feisty wife of a world-renowned Russian sculptor emasculated an armed thug outside her Soho home — saying he “didn’t have the cojones to shoot her,” police sources said yesterday.

   2013 July 10, Daniel Prendergast, “‘You don’t have the cojones’: 54-year-old woman fronts up to would-be muggers who pointed gun at her chest”, in New York Post, archived from the original on 02 Aug 2016

3. Easily offended and ready to bicker.

   a feisty attitude

   Synonyms: testy

In a sentence

spirited and feisty

Where it comes from

First use appears c. 1875 in the US. From feist (“a small, aggressive dog”) + -y; the term feist (now rare) itself originally meant “stink”, and earlier “fart”, from Middle English, from Old English, from Proto-Germanic, presumably from Proto-Indo-European – see feist for details.