What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Peevish vs Exasperate - What's the difference?

peevish | exasperate |

As adjectives the difference between peevish and exasperate

is that peevish is constantly complaining; fretful, whining while exasperate is (obsolete) exasperated; embittered.

As a verb exasperate is

to frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.

peevish

English

Alternative forms

* (l), (l) (obsolete)

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."

    Derived terms

    * peevishly * peevishness

    exasperate

    English

    Verb

    (exasperat)
  • To frustrate, vex, provoke, or annoy; to make angry.
  • * , Macbeth , act 3, sc. 6:
    • this report
    Hath so exasperate the king that he
    Prepares for some attempt of war.
  • * 1851 , , Moby Dick , ch. 3:
    • The picture represents a Cape-Horner in a great hurricane; the half-foundered ship weltering there with its three dismantled masts alone visible; and an exasperated whale, purposing to spring clean over the craft, is in the enormous act of impaling himself upon the three mast-heads.
  • * 1853 , , Bleak House , ch. 11:
    • Beadle goes into various shops and parlours, examining the inhabitants; always shutting the door first, and by exclusion, delay, and general idiotcy, exasperating the public.
  • * 1987 , " Woman of the Year: Corazon Aquino," Time , 5 Jan:
    • [S]he exasperates her security men by acting as if she were protected by some invisible shield.
  • * 2007 , " Loyal Mail," Times Online (UK), 4 June (retrieved 7 Oct 2010):
    • News that Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, is set to receive a bumper bonus will exasperate postal workers.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) Exasperated; embittered.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • * Elizabeth Browning
    • Like swallows which the exasperate dying year / Sets spinning.

    See also

    * exacerbate ----