testily

comparative more testily · superlative most testily

1. In a testy way; in the manner of someone who is testy.

   'Oh, for heaven's sake,' said Prak and died testily.

   1995, Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: a Trilogy in Five Parts, →ISBN, page 458

   4 more examples

   […]thinking it urgent to say something, I asked him presently if he felt any cold draught from the door, which was behind him. "No, no!" he responded shortly and somewhat testily.

   1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XXXIII, in Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC

   `We have been looking for a mystery, and we certainly seem to have found one.' `What do I make of it? Why, that your poor dear father was off his head, of course,' I answered, testily.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   "Sit ye down, I'm sayin'," said Uncle Jobson testily.

   1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 43

   “Starve? Stuff and nonsense!” he retorted testily. “No able-bodied fellow need starve nowadays. [...] Pshaw! Starve! That's always your, cuckoo cry!”

   1942 January 31, The Voice, Hobart, page 5, column 2