Peevish vs Pugnacious - What's the difference?
peevish | pugnacious |
Constantly complaining; fretful, whining.
* , King Henry V , act 3, scene 7:
* 1813 , , Pride and Prejudice , ch. 41:
* 1917 , , "The Mixer" in The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories :
Naturally aggressive or hostile; combative; belligerent.
* 1858 , (Anthony Trollope), Dr Thorne , ch. 3:
* 1904 , (Jack London), The Sea Wolf , ch. 15:
* 2003 , (Ken Follett), Hornet Flight , ISBN 9780451210746,
* '>citation
As adjectives the difference between peevish and pugnacious
is that peevish is constantly complaining; fretful, whining while pugnacious is naturally aggressive or hostile; combative; belligerent.peevish
English
Alternative forms
* (l), (l) (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- 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!
- [T]he luckless Kitty continued in the parlour repining at her fate in terms as unreasonable as her accent was peevish .
- 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 * peevishnesspugnacious
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- Not that the doctor was a bully, or even pugnacious , in the usual sense of the word; he had no disposition to provoke a fight, no propense love of quarrelling.
- As he made the demand he spat out a mouthful of blood and teeth and shoved his pugnacious face close to Oofty-Oofty.
pp. 249-250:
- In the face of bad news Churchill normally became even more pugnacious , always wanting to respond to defeat by going on the attack.