petulant

comparative more petulant · superlative most petulant

1. Childishly irritable.

   Lack of sleep is causing Dave's recent petulant behavior.

   3 more examples

   But when your praying has troubled the silence long it may be that some god as he strolls in Pegāna’s glades may come on one of our lost prayers, that flutters like a butterfly tossed in storm when all its wings are broken; then if the gods be merciful they may ease our fears in Sidith, or else they may crush us, being petulant gods, and so we shall see trouble in Sidith no longer, with its pestilence and dearth and fears of war.

   1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 61

   Former associates have described Musk as petty, cruel and petulant, particularly when frustrated or challenged.

   2021 December 13, Molly Ball, Jeffrey Kluger, Alejandro de la Garza, “Elon Musk: Person of the Year 2021”, in TIME, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2021

   Green Day’s petulant pop-punk album Dookie came out three years after that and moved another 10 million, as did a sweeping 1995 double album by Smashing Pumpkins.

   2022, Chuck Klosterman, The Nineties, New York: Penguin Press, →ISBN

   Synonyms: bad-tempered, crabby, grouchy, huffy, atrabilious, bad-tempered, bilious, bitchy · Antonyms: easygoing

2. obsoleteForward; pert; insolent; wanton.

   Who hath not like cause to complain, and is not so troubled, that shall fall into the mouths of such men? for many are of so petulant a spleen

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

   Synonyms: brazen, flippant, impertinent, audacious, bold, get wise, bold-faced, bold as brass