petulant
noun
- a petulant person, especially a childishly sulky or bad-tempered one
adjective
- insolent or rude in speech or behavior
- characterized by temporary or capricious ill humor : peevish
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈpɛt͡ʃʊlənt/ / /ˈpɛtjʊlənt/ / /ˈpɛt͡ʃələnt/
adj
Etymology: From Middle French, from Latin petulāns, akin to petō (“to ask for”).
- Childishly irritable.
“Lack of sleep is causing Dave's recent petulant behavior.”
“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.”
- Forward; 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”