restive
Americanadjective
-
impatient of control, restraint, or delay, as persons; restless; uneasy.
-
refractory; stubborn.
- Synonyms:
- obstinate, disobedient, recalcitrant
-
refusing to go forward; balky.
a restive horse.
adjective
-
restless, nervous, or uneasy
-
impatient of control or authority
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of restive
1375–1425; rest 2 + -ive; replacing late Middle English restif stationary, balking < Old French: inert
Explanation
To be restive is to be impatient or on edge — it's an edgy state. When you feel like your skin is too tight and your nerves are ready to snap, when you feel ready to explode, you are restive. It's not only people who can be restive: the world suffers from much turmoil, and there are restive areas, where people are unhappy or oppressed and desperate for change. It's that need for change and movement that makes someone restive or eager to move, frustrated at being stuck in one place. This sense of being stuck is obvious in the history of the word, which was first used in the 15th century. It evolved from the Anglo-French adjective restif, which meant "refusing to move ahead." Picture a restive horse, refusing to take a jump.
Vocabulary lists containing restive
Animal Farm
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" by Frederick Douglass
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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.
Conflict monitors, now watching with alarm as Islamist militants capture territory and stage attacks in Mali, urge the administration to pay closer attention to the restive Sahel region and other hot spots.
From Salon • May 19, 2026
Myanmar's military has long presented itself as the only force guarding the restive country from rupture and ruin.
From Barron's • Mar. 31, 2026
In Cameroon, the Pope will visit the capital Yaoundé, the economic hub Douala, and the Anglophone city of Bamenda in the restive Northwest region, where an armed conflict has been raging for nearly 10 years.
From BBC • Feb. 25, 2026
Yet, however destructive to his personal life, Matthiessen’s restive, yearning nature animated the best of his fiction.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
I served on the first ship, the Fowey man-of-war; and then back to the Palace, where I stood as a picket guard when the population was got all restive.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
