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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
pet·u·lant    Audio Help   [pech-uh-luhnt] Pronunciation Key
–adjective
moved to or showing sudden, impatient irritation, esp. over some trifling annoyance: a petulant toss of the head.

[Origin: 1590–1600; < L petulant- (s. of petulāns) impudent, akin to petere to seek, head for]

pet·u·lant·ly, adverb

irritable, peevish, fretful, pettish, touchy.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
petulant

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
pet·u·lant    Audio Help   (pěch'ə-lənt)  Pronunciation Key 
adj.  
  1. Unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered; peevish.
  2. Contemptuous in speech or behavior.


[Latin petulāns, petulant-, insolent, from petere, to assail; see pet- in Indo-European roots.]

pet'u·lance, pet'u·lan·cy n., pet'u·lant·ly adv.
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
petulant 
1599, "immodest, wanton, saucy," from M.Fr. petulant (1350), from L. petulantem (nom. petulans) "wanton, froward, insolent," from the root of petere "rush at, seek" (see petition). Meaning "peevish, irritable" first recorded 1775, probably by influence of pet (2).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
petulant

adjective
easily irritated or annoyed; "an incorrigibly fractious young man"; "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen" 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Petulant

Pet"u*lance\, Petulancy \Pet"u*lan*cy\, n. [L. petulania: cf. F. p['e]tulance. See Petulant.] The quality or state of being petulant; temporary peevishness; pettishness; capricious ill humor. "The petulancy of our words." --B. Jonson.

Like pride in some, and like petulance in others. --Clarendon.

The lowering eye, the petulance, the frown. --Cowper.

Syn: Petulance, Peevishness. -- Peevishness implies the permanence of a sour, fretful temper; petulance implies temporary or capricious irritation.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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