- irascible
- irascible, choleric, splenetic, testy, touchy, cranky, cross mean easily angered or enraged.Irascible implies the possession of a fiery or inflammable temper or a tendency to flare up at the slightest provocation{
the irascible but kindhearted deity who indulges in copious curses to ease his feelings— Cohen
}{a peppery and irascible old gentleman
}Choleric implies excitability of temper, unreasonableness in anger, and usually an impatient and uniformly irritable frame of mind{that in the captain's but a choleric word, which in the soldier is flat blasphemy— Shak.
}{a testy and choleric gentleman easily wrought into passion— Cooper
}Splenetic implies a similar temperament, but one especially given to moroseness and fits of bad temper which exhibit themselves in angry, sullen, or intensely peevish moods, words, or acts{that splenetic temper, which seems to grudge brightness to the flames of hell— Landor
}{he was not splenetic: nay, he proved in the offending volume he could be civil, courteous, chivalrous— Meredith
}Testy implies irascibility occasioned by small annoyances{the testy major was in fume to find no hunter standing waiting— Masefield
}{he raged ... he was ever more autocratic, more testy— Sinclair Lewis
}Touchy suggests readiness to take offense; it often connotes undue irritability or oversensitiveness{I am not touchy under criticism— Stevenson
}{touchy about their own sacred symbols and alert to interpret any slight as an insult— Blanshard
}Cranky and cross often mean little more than irritable and difficult to please. But cranky may carry an implication of the possession of set notions, fixed ideas, or unvarying standards which predispose one to anger or a show of temper when others (as in their speech, conduct, requests, or work) do not conform to these standards{a cranky critic
}{a cranky employer
}{a cranky teacher
}{old age seemed to settle on me; I grew nervous, cranky and thin, I quarreled with the travelers— Rosenfeld
}Cross, on the other hand, may imply a being out of sorts that results in irascibility or irritability but only for the duration of one's mood{sometimes, when I am cross and cannot sleep, I engage in angry contests with the opinions I object to— L. P. Smith
}{the attempts to persuade the Intelligent Woman that she is having a glorious treat when she is in fact being . . . bored and tired out and sent home cross and miserable— Shaw
}Analogous words: irritable, fractious, snappish, waspish, huffy, querulous, petulant, peevish: impatient, restive, jumpy, jittery, nervous: crabbed, surly (see SULLEN)
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
