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fractious - 4 dictionary results

frac⋅tious

  [frak-shuhs]
Use fractious in a Sentence
–adjective
1. refractory or unruly: a fractious animal that would not submit to the harness.
2. readily angered; peevish; irritable; quarrelsome: an incorrigibly fractious young man.
Origin:
1715–25; fracti(on) + -ous

Related forms:
frac⋅tious⋅ly, adverb
frac⋅tious⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. stubborn, difficult. 2. testy, captious, petulant, snappish, pettish, waspish, touchy.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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frac·tious   (frāk'shəs)   
adj.  
  1. Inclined to make trouble; unruly.
  2. Having a peevish nature; cranky.

[From fraction, discord (obsolete).]
frac'tious·ly adv., frac'tious·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Fractious

Frac"tious\, a. [Cf. Prov. E. frack forward, eager, E. freak, fridge; or Prov. E. fratch to squabble, quarrel.] Apt to break out into a passion; apt to scold; cross; snappish; ugly; unruly; as, a fractious man; a fractious horse.

Syn: Snappish; peevish; waspish; cross; irritable; perverse; pettish. -- Frac"tious*ly, v. -- Frac"tious*ness, n.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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fractious 
1725, from fraction in an obsolete sense of "brawling, discord" + -ous; probably on model of captious.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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