Pee"vish (?), a. [OE. pevische; of uncertain origin, perh. from a word imitative of the noise made by fretful children + -ish.]
1.
Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant.
"Her
peevish babe."
Wordsworth.
She is peevish, sullen, froward.
Shak.
2.
Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer.
3.
Silly; childish; trifling.
[Obs.]
To send such peevish tokens to a king.
Shak.
Syn. -- Querulous; petulant; cross; ill-tempered; testy; captious; discontented. See Fretful.
© Webster 1913.