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Puerile vs Petulant - What's the difference?

puerile | petulant |

As adjectives the difference between puerile and petulant

is that puerile is characteristic of, or pertaining to, a boy or boys; confer : puellile while petulant is childishly irritable.

puerile

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Characteristic of, or pertaining to, a boy or boys; confer : puellile.
  • Childish; trifling; silly.
  • * (rfdate) De Quincey:
    • The French have been notorious through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents.
  • * 1927 , , page 79:
    • From the table he had received the gout; from the alcove a tendency to convulsions; from the grandeeship a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue; from the exile, oceans of boredom, a boredom so persuasive that it was like pain,—he woke up with it and spent the day with it, and it sat by his bed all night watching his sleep.
  • * '>citation

    • Synonyms

    * (childish): juvenile, silly, trifling,

    Derived terms

    * puerilism * puerility

    See also

    * boyish * yobbish * youthful ----

    petulant

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • childishly irritable
    • Lack of sleep is causing Dave's recent petulant behavior.
  • (obsolete) forward; pert; insolent; wanton.
    • (Burton)

    Synonyms

    * huffy * snappish * irritable * grouchy * bad-tempered * ill-tempered * crabby

    Antonyms

    * easygoing