Synonyms for petulance
petu·lance

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. petulance

   Displeasure is the mildest and most general word. Choler and ire, now rare except in poetic or highly rhetorical language, denote a still, and the latter a persistent, anger. Temper used alone in the sense of anger is colloquial, tho we may correctly say a hot temper, a fiery temper, etc. Passion, tho a word of far wider application, may, in the singular, be employed to denote anger; "did put me in a towering passion," Shakespeare Hamlet act v, sc. 2. Anger is violent and vindictive emotion, which is sharp, sudden, and, like all violent passions, necessarily brief. Resentment (a feeling back or feeling over again) is persistent, the bitter brooding over injuries. Exasperation, a roughening, is a hot, superficial intensity of anger, demanding instant expression. Rage drives one beyond the bounds of prudence or discretion; fury is stronger yet, and sweeps one away into uncontrollable violence. Anger is personal and usually selfish, aroused by real or supposed wrong to oneself, and directed specifically and intensely against the person who is viewed as blameworthy. Indignation is impersonal and unselfish displeasure at unworthy acts (Latin indigna), i. e., at wrong as wrong. Pure indignation is not followed by regret, and needs no repentance; it is also more self-controlled than anger. Anger is commonly a sin; indignation is often a duty. Wrath is deep and perhaps vengeful displeasure, as when the people of Nazareth were "filled with wrath" at the plain words of Jesus (Luke iv, 28); it may, however, simply express the culmination of righteous indignation without malice in a pure being; as, the wrath of God. Impatience, fretfulness, irritation, peevishness, pettishness, petulance, and vexation express the slighter forms of anger. Irritation, petulance, and vexation are temporary and for immediate cause. Fretfulness, pettishness, and peevishness are chronic states finding in any petty matter an occasion for their exercise. Compare ACRIMONY; ENMITY; HATRED.

   Synonyms:
   anger, animosity, choler, displeasure, exasperation, fretfulness, fury, impatience, indignation, ire, irritation, offense, passion, peevishness, pettishness, rage, resentment, temper, vexation, wrath

   Antonyms:
   amiability, charity, forbearance, gentleness, leniency, lenity, long-suffering, love, mildness, patience, peace, peaceableness, peacefulness, self-control, self-restraint

   Preposition:
   Anger at the insult prompted the reply. Anger toward the offender exaggerates the offense.

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:2.0 / 2 votes

1. irritability, crossness, fretfulness, fussiness, peevishness, petulance, cholernoun

   an irritable petulant feeling

   Synonyms:
   ire, temper, crossness, yellow bile, surliness, biliousness, excitability, fussiness, peevishness, pettishness, crabbiness, snappishness, irritability, choler, fretfulness, anger, crabbedness

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. petulancenoun

   Synonyms:
   peevishness, fretfulness, testiness, waspishness, crustiness, pettishness, snappishness, irritability, ill-temper

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How to use petulance in a sentence?

1. Denver MayorMichael Hancock:

   Following extensive discussions with our regional partners … and the downward trajectory of cases, positivity and hospitalizations, Denver will not be extending our public health order, it has been an incredibly hard two years for all of us. We need a little less anger and petulance and a little more understanding for folks toward one another.

2. New York:

   Gyllenhaal is subtly wonderful as the earthy, calm Roland, though in some variations he reveals petulance and frustration.