fretful
/ˈfɹɛtfəl/
fretful adjective: unable to relax: fidgety; restless; worried; anxious.
Adjective
fretful (comparative more fretful, superlative most fretful)
- Unable to relax: fidgety; restless; worried; anxious.
- Irritable; bad-tempered; grumpy; peevish.
- Near-synonyms: fractious, petulant, waspish, impatient, angry, annoyed
- I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord / VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres, / Thy knotty and combined locks to part, / And each particular haire to ſtand an end, / Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Antonyms:
- calm, meek, patient, forbearing, contented, resigned, uncomplaining
fretful meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
fretful in Tamil
- சிடுசிடுப்பான
fretful in Urdu
- چڑچڑا
fretful in Bengali
- খিটখিটে, বদমেজাজী স্বভাব
fretful in Malayalam
- upset, distressed, miserable
- ശീഘ്രസന്തപ്തമായ, ശീഘ്രക്ഷുബ്ധമായ, വക്രപ്രകൃതമായ, വാമശീലമായ, ക്ലേശിത, വ്യഥിതമായ
More languagesFewer languages
- fretful in Kannada
- ಅಳುಕುಳಿ
Examples of fretful in a sentence
- It was another cry, but not quite like the one she had heard last night; it was only a short one, a fretful, childish whine muffled by passing through walls.1910 November – 1911 August, Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, published 1911...
- He used to call himself a “fretful optimist,” he said, but now he’s a “moderate fatalist.”2026 April 3, Matteo Wong, Lila Shroff, “Silicon Valley Is in a Frenzy Over Bots That Build Themselves”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The...
Synonyms of fretful
Antonyms
Forms of fretful
| comparative | more fretful |
|---|---|
| superlative | most fretful |
| alternative form | fretfull |
Origin of fretful
From fret + -ful.
Words formed from fretful
Questions about fretful
- What does fretful mean?
- Fretful means unable to relax: fidgety; restless; worried; anxious.
- What is fretful in Tamil?
- Fretful in Tamil is சிடுசிடுப்பான. See Fretful meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use fretful in a sentence?
- It was another cry, but not quite like the one she had heard last night; it was only a short one, a fretful, childish whine muffled by passing through walls.
- What part of speech is fretful?
- Fretful is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce fretful?
- Fretful is pronounced /ˈfɹɛtfəl/.
Words near fretful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: fretful (page history and authors); fretful (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fretful (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fretful (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fretful (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); fretful (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-fretful.wav.
Cite this entry: “fretful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fretful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.