Defn: The quality or state of being petulant; temporary peevishness;
pettishness; capricious ill humor. "The petulancy of our words." B.
Jonson.
Like pride in some, and like petulance in others. Clarendon.
The lowering eye, the petulance, the frown. Cowper.
Syn.
— Petulance, Peevishness.
— Peevishness implies the permanence of a sour, fretful temper;
petulance implies temporary or capricious irritation.
PETULANT
Pet"u*lant, a. Etym: [L. petulans, -antis, prop., making slight
attacks upon, from a lost dim. of petere to fall upon, to attack: cf.
F. pétulant. See Petition.]
1. Forward; pert; insolent; wanton. [Obs.] Burton.
2. Capriciously fretful; characterized by ill-natured freakishness; irritable. "Petulant moods." Macaulay.
Syn.
— Irritable; ill-humored; peevish; cross; fretful; querulous.
PETULANTLY
Pet"u*lant*ly, adv.
Defn: In a petulant manner.
PETULCITY
Pe*tul"ci*ty, n. Etym: [See Petulcous.]
Defn: Wantonness; friskiness. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.