tetchy

Or tech·y

[tech-ee]

adjective

tetchier, tetchiest 

1. irritable; touchy.

tetchy

/ ˈtɛtʃɪ /

adjective

1. being or inclined to be cross, irritable, or touchy

Other Word Forms

• tetchily adverb
• tetchiness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of tetchy¹

1585–95; origin uncertain; tetched, -y ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of tetchy¹

C16: probably from obsolete tetch defect, from Old French tache spot, of Germanic origin

Example Sentences

The relationship between the government and its backbenchers is at best tetchy, at its worst volcanic.

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I am not upset if he was a little tetchy.

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In a tetchy exchange, the officials insisted that the response had been swift and effective and that it was "untrue and insulting" to criticise.

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Responding to the committee's conservative president who had just rebuked him in a tetchy opening to the hearing, Sanchez fired back that "I think this is a circus."

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Thursday told a tetchy Senate committee hearing into a corruption scandal that has rocked his minority leftist government that the probe was "a circus".

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