irascible

adj

1. Easily provoked to outbursts of anger; irritable.

   “The divine Plato, whose doctrines are not sufficiently attended to by philosophers of the present age, allows to every man three souls—one, immortal and rational, seated in the brain, that it may overlook and regulate the body—a second consisting of the surly and irascible passions, which like belligerent powers lie encamped around the heart[…]”

   “Like some poor devils ashore that happen to know an irascible great man, they make distant unobtrusive salutations to him in the street, lest if they pursued the acquaintance further, they might receive a summary thump for their presumption.”

   “I am naturally irascible, and if I could have shaken this negative gentleman vigorously, the relief would have been immense.”

   “[…] a never idle man of great physical strength and extremely irascible—did he not fling a badly baked plum pudding through the window upon Christmas Day?”

   “Alan Greenspan was on an irascible roll last week, first dissing everyone who holds a fixed-rate mortgage — suckers! — and later picking on folks who collect Social Security: Get back to work, Grandma.”

2. Relating to the irascible passions.

   “The irascible and concupiscible appetites are distinguished by different aspects of their objects. The object of the concupiscible faculty "is sensible good or evil, simply apprehended as such" while good and evil considered as "arduous or difficult … is the object of the irascible faculty."”