PETULANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does petulance mean? 

• PETULANCE (noun)
  The noun PETULANCE has 1 sense:

1. an irritable petulant feeling

  Familiarity information: PETULANCE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PETULANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An irritable petulant feeling

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

choler; crossness; fretfulness; fussiness; irritability; peevishness; petulance

Hypernyms ("petulance" is a kind of...):

distemper; ill humor; ill humour (an angry and disagreeable mood)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "petulance"):

testiness; tetchiness; touchiness (feeling easily irritated)

pet (a fit of petulance or sulkiness (especially at what is felt to be a slight))

Derivation:

petulant (easily irritated or annoyed)

 Context examples 

Thank heaven that there were two sane men—Lord John Roxton and myself—to prevent the petulance and folly of our learned Professors from sending us back empty-handed to London.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And then she would pout like a disappointed child; a pensive cloud would soften her radiant vivacity; she would withdraw her hand hastily from his, and turn in transient petulance from his aspect, at once so heroic and so martyr-like.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Her continual disagreements with her mother, her rash squabbles with Tom and Charles, and petulance with Betsey, were at least so distressing to Fanny that, though admitting they were by no means without provocation, she feared the disposition that could push them to such length must be far from amiable, and from affording any repose to herself.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Always mature for her age, she had gained a certain aplomb in both carriage and conversation, which made her seem more of a woman of the world than she was, but her old petulance now and then showed itself, her strong will still held its own, and her native frankness was unspoiled by foreign polish.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It was gratitude; gratitude, not merely for having once loved her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive all the petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)