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Webster 1913 Edition

Adj.

[L.

petulans

-antis

, prop., making slight attacks upon, from a lost dim. of

petere

to fall upon, to attack: cf. F.

pétulant

. See

Forward; pert; insolent; wanton.

[Obs.]

Burton.

Capriciously fretful; characterized by ill-natured freakishness; irritable.

“Petulant moods.”

Macaulay.

Syn. – Irritable; ill-humored; peevish; cross; fretful; querulous.

Adj.

[L. petulans.] Saucy; pert or forward with fretfulness or sourness of temper; as a petulant youth.

Manifesting petulance; proceeding from pettishness; as a petulant demand; a petulant answer.

Wanton; freakish in passion.

See also: petulant

pétulant m ‎(feminine singular pétulante, masculine plural pétulants, feminine plural pétulantes)