Words / C2

PET-y-uh-l-uh-nt/ˈpetjələnt/

Petulant means childishly sulky or bad-tempered when you do not get your way: a petulant reply, petulant complaints. Sulky is everyday; peevish is a close cousin; childish is broader. Disapproving, of adults more stingingly than of children. In speech, sulky and childish is enough. Petulance is the noun. It is small-scale bad temper, not a principled stand. Do not call firm disagreement petulant to win the room.

Meaning

Childishly sulky or bad-tempered when you do not get your way.

Examples

• “A petulant reply will not help in an interview.”
• “A petulant reply will not help in an interview; nor will it help in a seminar.”
• “Petulant sighs at the rota change impressed nobody who already worked the unsocial hours.”

Good to know

Childishly sulky when thwarted. Everyday: sulky. Close: peevish. Noun: petulance. Small-scale temper, not principled dissent. Harsher of adults.

Near in meaning

sulky

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