peevish

adj

1. Constantly complaining, especially in a childish way due to insignificant matters; fretful, whiny.

   “Due to the long wait, there were several peevish patients in the doctor’s waiting room.”

   “[T]he nature of religion, […] showeth it consisteth […] not in a peevish crossness and obstinate repugnancy to received laws and customs, but in a quiet and peaceable submission to the express laws of God, and lawful commands of man; […]”

   “This makes his own mind untroubled, and consequently unapt to vent peevish expressions, or give passionate or inconsistent orders to those about him.”

   “[T]he luckless Kitty continued in the parlour repining at her fate in terms as unreasonable as her accent was peevish.”

   “There is E——, […] querulous and dictatorial, and with a peevish whine in his voice like a beaten school-boy.”

2. Quick to become bad-tempered or cross, especially due to insignificant matters; irritable, pettish, petulant.

   “I would rather figure things out on my own than ask that peevish librarian for help.”

   “The follest slouen ondyr heuen, / Prowde, peuiche, lyddyr, and lewde, / Malapert, medyllar, nothyng well thewde, […]”

   “VVhy ſhould a man vvhoſe blood is vvarme vvithin, / Sit like his Grandſire, cut in Alabaſter? / Sleepe vvhen he vvakes? and creepe into the Iaundies / By beeing peeuiſh?”

   “VVhat a vvretched and peeuiſh fellow is this King of England, to mope vvith his fat-brain'd follovvers ſo farre out of his knovvledge.”

   “Gods providence on purpoſe permitted Moſes to fall into this peeviſh paſſion, to manifeſt the vaſt difference betvveen humane and Divine meekneſs.”

3. (Canada, Northern-England, figuratively)Of weather: blustery, windy; also, of wind: cold and strong; bitter, sharp.

   “Serene he bears the peeviſh eaſtern blaſt, / And uninfected breaths the mortal South.”

4. (obsolete)Coy, modest.
5. (obsolete)Foolish, silly.

   “VVhy vvhat a peeuiſh Foole vvas that of Creet [i.e., Daedalus], / That taught his Sonne [Icarus] the office of a Fovvle, / And yet for all his vvings, the Foole vvas drovvn'd.”

   “Confuſion take ſuch dotage, 'tis but forg'd, / This is your peeuiſh chattering vveake old man.”

6. (obsolete)Harmful, injurious; also, mischievous; or malicious, spiteful.

   “[The Scots] brent ſome of the English Shippes. With the which victory, they were ſo inflamed with pride, that in deriſion of the king, they made certaine peeuiſhe and mocking rymes vvhich I paſſe ouer.”

   “Ile home, and ſtarue, this croſſe, this peeuiſh hap, / Strikes dead my ſpirits like a thunderclap.”

7. (obsolete)Impulsive and unpredictable; capricious, fickle.

   “[T]heſe women be all ſuche madde pieuiſhe elues / They will not be wonne except it pleaſe them ſelues.”

   “VVhy this it is, to be a peeuiſh Girle, / That flies her fortune vvhen it follovves her: […]”

8. (obsolete)Obstinately in the wrong; perverse, stubborn.

   “But ſuche as will perſyſt ſtyll in theyr wylfulneſſe, I muſt nedes iudge not only foliſhe, froward and obstynate: but also peuiſhe, peruerſe and indurate.”

   “Nothing is ſo great an enemie to a ſounde iudgment, as the pride of a péeuiſh conceit, which cauſeth a man both in life and beliefe, either to ſnatch vppe or hatch newfangles.”

   “But, the main end for vvhich this deſert may ſeem ordained, vvas, that therein God and the Iſraelites might for forty years mutually prove one another. And upon triall, they appeared a peeviſh, frovvard, ſtubborn people.”

9. (obsolete)Out of one's mind; mad.

   “The dredfull dinne droue all the rowte on a rowe; / Some tremblid, some girnid, some gaspid, some gasid, / As people halfe peuysshe, or men that were masyd.”

   “There vvas neuer any ſo peeuiſh to imagin the Moone eyther capable of affection, or ſhape of a Miſtris: […]”

10. (obsolete)Of a thing: evoking a feeling of distaste, horror, etc.

    “The Lords Supper and your peeviſh, popiſh private maſſe doe agree together like God and the divell, Chriſt and Beliall, light and darkneſſe, truth and falſehood, […]”

11. (Northern-England, obsolete)Clever, skilful.

    “The word peeviſh among the vulgar of Scotland is uſed for niggardly, covetous; in the North of England, for vvitty, ſubtile.”

adv

1. (not-comparable, obsolete)Synonym of peevishly (“in a peevish manner: whiningly; irritably, petulantly; etc.”).

   “She was not halfe so wyse / As she was peuysshe nyse.”

   “Be the atturney of my loue to her. / Pleade vvhat I vvill be, not vvhat I haue bene, / Not by deſertes, but vvhat I vvill deſerue, / Vrge the neceſſitie and ſtate of times, / And be not pieuiſh, fond in great deſignes.”