tetchy
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of tetchy
Explanation
If you're feeling tetchy, you're irritable or easily annoyed. Stepping in a puddle on your way to school and spending the whole day with cold, wet socks might make you tetchy. Is your brother cranky and no fun to be around today? He's tetchy. This adjective is similar to words like testy, peevish and grumpy. It's another way to describe your fractious friend or your snappy sister. The origin of tetchy is unclear, but most experts suspect it comes from the Scots word tache, "blotch" or "fault."
Vocabulary lists containing tetchy
"The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Vocabulary from Act 1
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The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze
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The Red Car to Hollywood
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A version of this review appears in print on January 30, 2014, on page C4 of the with the headline: Wry Hybrid Of Debonair And Tetchy.
From New York Times • Jan. 29, 2014
I often saw the Tetchy girls hoeing and weeding, and have no doubt they performed a very large part of that important labor.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865 by Various
Nothing had ever so melted down the rude stiffness of the Tetchy family as this wonderful revolution in my domestic prospects.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 96, October 1865 by Various
The occupants were not much of neighbors to us, though friendly enough in their way; among them, however, was a family by the name of Tetchy who claimed to have some acquaintance with us.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865 by Various
And Jane so persistently snubbed the son, that he very soon discovered, that, instead of being desirous of assuming the name of Tetchy, she would prefer never to hear it even mentioned.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
