petulant
/ˈpɛt͡ʃʊlənt/
petulant adjective: childishly irritable.
Adjective
petulant (comparative more petulant, superlative most petulant)
- 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...1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 61
- Synonyms:
- bad-tempered, crabby, grouchy, huffy, atrabilious, bilious, bitchy, brainish, cantankerous, carnaptious
- Antonyms:
- easygoing
- 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 spleen1624, 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, brassy, malapert
petulant meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
petulant in Tamil
- எரிச்சல் கொள்ளுகிற, வெடுவெடுப்பான
petulant in Urdu
- عیاش, فاسق, کج خلق, مست, نفس پرست, شہوت انگیز
petulant in Bengali
- খিটখিটে, অল্পতেই বিরক্ত হয় এমন
petulant in Malayalam
- അക്ഷമനായ, കുറുമ്പുള്ള, കോപശീലമായ
More languagesFewer languages
- petulant in Kannada
- ತಾಳ್ಮೆಯಿಲ್ಲದ, ಸಿಡಿಮಿಡಿಗೊಳ್ಳುವ, ರೇಗುವ, ಮುಂಗೋಪದ
Examples of petulant in a sentence
- 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...
- 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 of petulant
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of petulant
| comparative | more petulant |
|---|---|
| superlative | most petulant |
Origin of petulant
From Middle French, from Latin petulāns, akin to petō (“to ask for”).
Words formed from petulant
Questions about petulant
- What does petulant mean?
- Petulant means childishly irritable.
- What is petulant in Tamil?
- Petulant in Tamil is எரிச்சல் கொள்ளுகிற, வெடுவெடுப்பான. See Petulant meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use petulant in a sentence?
- Former associates have described Musk as petty, cruel and petulant, particularly when frustrated or challenged.
- What part of speech is petulant?
- Petulant is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce petulant?
- Petulant is pronounced /ˈpɛt͡ʃʊlənt/.
Words near petulant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: petulant (page history and authors); petulant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); petulant (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); petulant (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); petulant (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); petulant (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-petulant.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-JutishMale-petulant.wav.
Cite this entry: “petulant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/petulant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.