TESTY

adj. irritable, bad-tempered, irascible, short-tempered, petulant, touchy, tetchy, querulous, peevish, hot-tempered, crusty, cross, grumpy, grouchy, bearish, crabby, crabbed, fretful, captious, waspish, snappish, quarrelsome, fractious, contentious, choleric, splenetic, ill-humoured, disagreeable, ill-tempered, edgy, on edge, quick-tempered, crotchety, cantankerous, US cranky, Colloq and US and Canadian dialect ornery The old colonel made a few testy remarks about the boys' haircuts Why make excuses for his being so testy?