fractious

[ frak-shuhs ]

/ ˈfræk ʃəs /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fractious ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

refractory or unruly: a fractious animal that would not submit to the harness.

readily angered; peevish; irritable; quarrelsome: an incorrigibly fractious young man.

Nearby words

Origin of fractious

First recorded in 1715–25; fracti(on) + -ous

SYNONYMS FOR fractious

1. stubborn, difficult. 2. testy, captious, petulant, snappish, pettish, waspish, touchy.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fractious ON THESAURUS.COM

Related forms

frac·tious·ly, adverbfrac·tious·ness, nounun·frac·tious, adjectiveun·frac·tious·ly, adverb

un·frac·tious·ness, noun

Can be confusedfactional factious fractious

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fractious

Relationships in her "blood family," a distinction her brother pointedly made at her funeral, were often strained and fractious.
The Day the Fairytale Died|Marilyn Johnson|July 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Starting with the House, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was largely successful in keeping his fractious caucus largely in check.
2014 New Year’s Resolutions for the D.C. Political Establishment|Ron Christie|January 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The story told on these walls is a fractured and fractious one that consciously resists an easy narrative.
Finally, an Accurate Look Back at AIDS Activism in ‘Why We Fight’|Hugh Ryan|December 15, 2013|DAILY BEAST
We are a troubled and fractious country, in a difficult neighbourhood.
Rowdy Crowds At Mandela’s Memorial|Mark Gevisser|December 10, 2013|DAILY BEAST

Daniel Gross on why the markets may be waiting for Boehner and the fractious Republicans to blink.
Government Shutdown? Wall Street Refuses to Panic|Daniel Gross|September 30, 2013|DAILY BEAST
We expect to be caught with chaff, like fractious colts coquetting with the halter and secretly not unwilling to be caught.
Unveiling a Parallel|Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Marchant
Happily was it that he was exempt from all those fretful, fractious feelings to which aged people are occasionally subject.
Diary of Ezra Green, M.D. from November 1, 1777, to September 27, 1778|Ezra Green
They had not bread to quiet the fractious hunger cries of their children.
Memoirs of John R. Young|John Young
He spoke as to a fractious child, and his voice was kind and helpful even though his inflections were not cultured.
The Mystery Girl|Carolyn Wells
In Luther's days, how little they knew the magnitude of the results pending that controversy of fractious monk and haughty pope!
Conflict of Northern and Southern Theories of Man and Society|Henry Ward Beecher

British Dictionary definitions for fractious

fractious

/ (ˈfrækʃəs) /

adjective

irritable

unruly

Derived Formsfractiously, adverbfractiousness, noun

Word Origin for fractious

C18: from (obsolete) fraction discord + -ous

usage

Fractious is sometimes wrongly used where factious is meant: this factious (not fractious) dispute has split the party still further

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fractious

fractious

adj.

1725, from fraction in an obsolete sense of "a brawling, discord" (c.1500) + -ous; probably on model of captious. Related: Fractiously; fractiousness.

fractious

adjective

RELATED WORDS

Nearby words

Origin of fractious

Examples from the Web for fractious

fractious

adjective

Word Origin for fractious

usage

fractious