fractious

[frak-shuhs]

adjective

1. refractory or unruly.

   a fractious animal that would not submit to the harness.

   Synonyms: difficult, stubborn

2. readily angered; peevish; irritable; quarrelsome.

   an incorrigibly fractious young man.

   Synonyms: touchy, waspish, pettish, snappish, petulant, captious, testy

fractious

/ ˈfrækʃəs /

adjective

1. irritable

2. unruly

Usage

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

Other Word Forms

• fractiousness noun
• fractiously adverb
• unfractious adjective
• unfractiously adverb
• unfractiousness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of fractious¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of fractious¹

C18: from (obsolete) fraction discord + _-ous

Example Sentences

Analysts said the vote was more about the country’s fractious domestic politics than a serious attempt to undertake what would be seen by Washington, European capitals and the Arab world as an extremely provocative move.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She also tussled with Bass behind closed doors in late January, as revealed in text messages obtained by The Times that highlighted an increasingly fractious relationship.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But for two years he’s managed to do the unthinkable — to keep his notoriously fractious caucus together, despite the razor-thin margins he’s been dealt.

Read more on Salon

In reinstating Lecornu, a close ally, Macron risks deepening the frustration of lawmakers in the fractious National Assembly, particularly leftist members who have demanded a break with the past.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Telling Leigh he’s doing undercover classified work and can’t disclose where he lives, he starts dating her and helps to calm her fractious home life.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• irritable 
• recalcitrant 
• restive 
• testy 
• unmanageable 
• unruly