Search Result for "fractious": 
Wordnet 3.0

ADJECTIVE (3)

1. stubbornly resistant to authority or control;
- Example: "a fractious animal that would not submit to the harness"
- Example: "a refractory child"
[syn: fractious, refractory, recalcitrant]

2. easily irritated or annoyed;
- Example: "an incorrigibly fractious young man"
- Example: "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen"
[syn: cranky, fractious, irritable, nettlesome, peevish, peckish, pettish, petulant, scratchy, testy, tetchy, techy]

3. unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be troublesome;
- Example: "rockets were much too fractious to be tested near thickly populated areas"
- Example: "fractious components of a communication system"



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Fractious \Frac"tious\, a. [Cf. Prov. E. frack forward, eager,
   E. freak, fridge; or Prov. E. fratch to squabble, quarrel.]
   Apt to break out into a passion; apt to scold; cross;
   snappish; ugly; unruly; as, a fractious man; a fractious
   horse.

   Syn: Snappish; peevish; waspish; cross; irritable; perverse;
        pettish. -- Frac"tious*ly, v. -- Frac"tious*ness, n.
        [1913 Webster]


WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

fractious
    adj 1: stubbornly resistant to authority or control; "a
           fractious animal that would not submit to the harness";
           "a refractory child" [syn: fractious, refractory,
           recalcitrant]
    2: easily irritated or annoyed; "an incorrigibly fractious young
       man"; "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen" [syn:
       cranky, fractious, irritable, nettlesome, peevish,
       peckish, pettish, petulant, scratchy, testy,
       tetchy, techy]
    3: unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be
       troublesome; "rockets were much too fractious to be tested
       near thickly populated areas"; "fractious components of a
       communication system"