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)

Likely to snap or bite.

A snappish cur

*1877 , (Anna Sewell), (Black Beauty) Chapter 22[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Black_Beauty/22]

*:"She came to us snappish and suspicious, but when she found what sort of place ours was, it all went off by degrees

Exhibiting irritation or impatience; curt; irascible.

* 1990 , Nora Roberts, Taming Natasha , Silhouette Books (2011), ISBN 9781459213173, unnumbered page:

She heard her own voice, snappish and rude, and pressed a hand to her head.

* 2011 , Lynne McTaggart, The Bond , Simon & Schuster (2011), ISBN 9781439157947, page 91:

Even though the woman didn't work closely with Barsade, so palpable was her complaining and snappish temperament that it had infected everyone who worked around her.

* 2011 , Mary Doria Russell, Doc , Random House (2011), ISBN 9781400068043, page 173:

There was something underneath her snappish belligerence that made him feel protective and tolerant.