ˈirəd.əl, -rətə- adjective
( sometimes -er/-est )
Etymology: Latin irritabilis, from irritare to irritate + -abilis -able — more at irritate
: capable of being irritated: as
a. : likely to become impatient, angry, or disturbed : easily exasperated
an irritable disposition
such irritable neurotic people
broadly : easily excitable
b. : excessively or unduly sensitive to irritants or stimuli : exhibiting abnormal irritability
an irritable colon
c. of protoplasm or a living organism : responsive to stimuli
Synonyms:
fractious , peevish , snappish , waspish , petulant , pettish , huffy , huffish , fretful , querulous : irritable implies ready, impatient excitability whereby one is angered and exasperated easily
a hot day and the clerk in the store was irritable … had not slept much the night before and he had a headache — Lyle Saxon
fractious may suggest a wilful or truculent unruliness or perverse crossness
those who are spoilt and fractious, who must have everything their own way — F.A.Swinnerton
a wary, querulous, grumbling, vain, testy, self-righteous, honorable man, a defiant and fractious servant and a high-handed and mistrustful master — Arthur Schlesinger b.1917
peevish may suggest childish irritability about petty matters
peevish because he called her and she did not come, and he threw his bowl of tea on the ground like a willful child — Pearl Buck
peevish, and wrathful, often insolent, and quarrelsome — Charles Kingsley
snappish may apply to an irritability manifesting itself in sharp, tart, sarcastic objections and rejoinders
a little snappish at reflecting how many miles he had to post — Samuel Butler †1902
waspish may connote testy, resentful, stinging irascibility
a little waspish woman who would have been ahead of me snapped out at a man who seemed to be with her — C.S.Lewis
petulant may suggest sulky and capricious dissatisfaction and complaint as though resolved to be displeased
in his youth the spoiled child of Boston, in the middle life he was petulant and irritable, inclined to sulk when his will was crossed — V.L.Parrington
pettish may apply to childish, sulky ill humor of or as if of one slighted
she heard Amy's voice in pettish exclamation: “Oh, get out, you!” — Arnold Bennett
huffy or huffish may suggest a tending to take undue offense or to have one's arrogant pride hurt and to parade one's blustering irritation
rather huffy, and somewhat on the high-and-mighty order with him — Harriet B. Stowe
fretful suggests ill-humored continuing irritability and complaining or whining peevishness
his voice was peevish, almost whining, and there were certain overtones in it which recalled the fretful complaining voice — W.H.Wright
querulous stresses the idea of discontented whining complaining, often childishly futile, resentful, and arising from determined inclination to be displeased
the man himself grew old and querulous and hysterical with failure and repeated disappointment and chronic poverty — Aldous Huxley