Hypertext Webster Gateway: "fractious"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
fractious
adj 1: stubbornly resistant to authority or control; "a fractious
animal that would not submit to the harness"; "a
refractory child" [syn: {refractory}]
2: easily irritated or annoyed; "an incorrigibly fractious
young man"; "not the least nettlesome of his countrymen"
[syn: {cranky}, {irritable}, {nettlesome}, {peevish}, {peckish},
{pettish}, {petulant}, {testy}, {tetchy}, {techy}]
3: unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be
troublesome; "rockets were much too fractious to be tested
near thigkly populated areas"; "fractious components of a
communication system"
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