Adjective

(en adjective)

given to troublemaking

irritable; argumentative; quarrelsome

* {{quote-news, year=2014

, date=November 14 , author=Stephen Halliday , title=Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero , work=The Scotsman citation , page= , passage=Flair and invention were very much at a premium, suffocated by the relentless pace and often fractious nature of proceedings. The absence of James Morrison from the centre of Scotland’s midfield, the West Brom man ruled out on the morning of the game by illness, had already diminished the creative capacity of the home side in that department.}}

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times citation

, passage=That brief moment after the election four years ago, when many Americans thought Mr. Obama’s election would presage a new, less fractious political era, now seems very much a thing of the past. }}

* 1847 , ,

…in his present fractious mood, she dared whisper no observations, nor ask of him any information.

Adjective

(en adjective)

Constantly complaining; fretful, whining.

* , King Henry V , act 3, scene 7:

Orleans: What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king of England, to mope with his fat-brained followers so far out of his knowledge!

* 1813 , , Pride and Prejudice , ch. 41:

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

* 1917 , , "The Mixer" in The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories :

At first he was quite peevish . "What's the idea," he said, "coming and spoiling a man's beauty-sleep? Get out."