Meaning

1 senses
  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, Southern US, UK)Synonym of touchy: easily annoyed or irritated, peevish, testy, irascible; also (figurative) extremely sensitive, difficult to manage, use, or work.

    easily irritated or annoyed

Examples

3 sentences
  1. He is tetchy.

    deEr ist unleidlich.

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  2. He's very tetchy.

    deEr ist sehr launenhaft.

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  3. But she soon grew weary of that occupation; she became careless in her reports, impatient and tetchy when reprimanded for her negligence.

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Origin

Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet

Uncertain, first attested as teachie in the 1597 first quarto versions of Romeo and Juliet and Richard III. Perhaps coined by Shakespeare.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

tetchier, tetchiest
Comparativetetchier Lesson
Superlativetetchiest Lesson

regular

Synonyms

12 synonyms

Word family

3 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
tetchy — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto