Fractious
['frækʃəs]
Definition
(adj.) unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be troublesome; 'rockets were much too fractious to be tested near thickly populated areas'; 'fractious components of a communication system' .
(adj.) stubbornly resistant to authority or control; 'a fractious animal that would not submit to the harness'; 'a refractory child' .
Editor: Lora--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Apt to break out into a passion; apt to scold; cross; snappish; ugly; unruly; as, a fractious man; a fractious horse.
Checker: Wyatt
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Cross, captious, petulant, touchy, testy, peevish, fretful, splenetic, pettish, snappish, waspish, irritable.
Typist: Melba
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Snappish, peevish, cross, pettish, fretful, touchy, petulant, testy
ANT:Good-humored, blithesome, genial, agreeable, complaisant
Editor: Tracy
Examples
- He got fractious and nervous, and I was obliged to let him go into the streets. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Then Thuvia was lifted to the least fractious thoat, Xodar and Carthoris mounted two others, and we set out at a rapid pace toward the east. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
Editor: Tracy