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petulant

UK/ˈpɛt͡ʃʊlənt/US/ˈpɛt͡ʃʊlənt/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,872 of 15,258leans spoken

Petulant means sulky and bad-tempered over small things. A petulant reply, petulant and rude, sound petulant.

It carries an accusation of childishness, which is what makes it such a cutting word about an adult. It is about the size of the provocation rather than the strength of the reaction.

Definitions of petulant

  1. 1adjectivepetulantSulky and bad-tempered over small things.C1

    “The petulant footballer kicked the ball away when the referee gave a free kick against him.”

petulant is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin petulans means impudent, related to petere, to seek or attack.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *peth₂-

  2. Latin

    petulāns

  3. English, today

    petulant

Built from

  • petō · Latin — to ask for

From Middle French -, from Latin petulāns, akin to petō (“to ask for”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

petulant in the wild

  • The story follows an American reporter through US-occupied Canada, and depicts his metamorphosis from a petulant talking head into a hunted revolutionary.

    Faultline 49

  • Molly Bawn, Hungerford's best-known novel, is the story of a frivolous, petulant Irish girl.

    Molly Bawn (novel)

  • Ambitious and petulant, he refused the leadership of the bishop of Aix, capital of the province of Viennensis Secunda to which Marseilles was suffragan.

    Proculus, bishop of Marseilles

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the petō family

repeatappetitecompete

petulant — used about once every 10,786 pages · #11,872 · point at the bar for the others