Splenetic vs Fretful - What's the difference?
splenetic | fretful | Synonyms |
bad-tempered, irritable, peevish, spiteful, habitually angry
* 1678, Samuel Butler, Hudibras
* 1876, George Eliot, Daniel Deronda
(biology) relating to the spleen
* 1879, Sir Samuel White Baker, Cyprus, as I Saw it in 1879
irritable, bad-tempered, grumpy or peevish
* 1909:
unable to relax; fidgety or restless
Splenetic is a synonym of fretful.
As adjectives the difference between splenetic and fretful
is that splenetic is bad-tempered, irritable, peevish, spiteful, habitually angry while fretful is irritable, bad-tempered, grumpy or peevish.As a noun splenetic
is (archaic) a person affected with spleen.splenetic
English
Alternative forms
* splenetick (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- A sect, whose chief devotion lies / In odd perverse antipathies; / ... / More peevish, cross, and splenetick , / Than dog distract, or monkey sick.
- In fact, Gwendolen, not intending it, but intending the contrary, had offended her hostess, who, though not a splenetic or vindictive woman, had her susceptibilities.
- I have already described the general protuberance of the abdomen among the children throughout the Messaria and the Carpas districts, all of whom are more or less affected by splenetic diseases.
Derived terms
* splenetically * spleneticalfretful
English
Alternative forms
* fretfull (archaic)Adjective
(en adjective)- It was another cry, but not quite like the one she had heard last night; it was only a short one, a fretful , childish whine muffled by passing through walls.
