Word.ws English Dictionary

tetchily

/ˈtɛt͡ʃ.ɪ.li/

tetchily adverb: in an annoyed or irritated manner.

Adverb

tetchily (comparative more tetchily, superlative most tetchily)

  1. In an annoyed or irritated manner.
    • "Do be quiet, will you, or I shall miss it all," cried Jabez, tetchily.1862, Henry Mayhew, chapter V, in Young Benjamin Franklin
    • "No, indeed. He got me dis little buggy—"
      "Sidecar," corrected Ryan tetchily. "It's called a sidecar."2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 338

Synonyms of tetchily

Forms of tetchily

comparativemore tetchily
superlativemost tetchily

Origin of tetchily

From tetchy + -ly.

Questions about tetchily

What does tetchily mean?
Tetchily means in an annoyed or irritated manner.
What part of speech is tetchily?
Tetchily is an adverb.
How do you pronounce tetchily?
Tetchily is pronounced /ˈtɛt͡ʃ.ɪ.li/ (UK).

Words near tetchily in the dictionary

  1. tetched in the haid
  2. tetched in the head
  3. tetches
  4. tetchier
  5. tetchiest
  6. tetchily
  7. tetchiness
  8. tetchinesses
  9. tetching
  10. tetchy
  11. tete a tete

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tetchily (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)-Vealhurl-tetchily.wav.

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