as in irritable
easily offended
a morose and tetchy resident of a nursing home
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of tetchy
When Southampton’s Duje Caleta-Car was dismissed in January 2023 in the first leg of a tetchy Carabao Cup semi-final, Murphy waved him on his way.
—
George Caulkin, The Athletic, 6 Jan. 2025
Boos rang around an increasingly tetchy Goodison at the end of Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Brentford, a game in which Everton had a player advantage for 56 minutes including additional time but could not muster enough quality to win.
—Patrick Boyland, The Athletic, 24 Nov. 2024
Sunak dropped his attempts at contrition and became tetchy and confrontational instead.
—Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 29 June 2024
Janet has a boyfriend on the premises, too: a terse, tetchy older fellow named Wayne (Will Patton), who mostly keeps to himself.
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 14 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for tetchy
George Caulkin, The Athletic, 6 Jan. 2025
Boos rang around an increasingly tetchy Goodison at the end of Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Brentford, a game in which Everton had a player advantage for 56 minutes including additional time but could not muster enough quality to win.
—Patrick Boyland, The Athletic, 24 Nov. 2024
Sunak dropped his attempts at contrition and became tetchy and confrontational instead.
—Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 29 June 2024
Janet has a boyfriend on the premises, too: a terse, tetchy older fellow named Wayne (Will Patton), who mostly keeps to himself.
—Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 14 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for tetchy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tetchy
Adjective
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Strong winds also may have North Texans feeling more irritable, which scientists blame on there being too many positive ions in the air.—
Brayden Garcia,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
20 Mar. 2025
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Signs of overextension burnout include feeling emotionally drained, becoming irritable and struggling to focus—all of which can affect both your work and personal life.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes,
27 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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The rise in interest rates and inflation could dampen the growth prospects of shale oil producers, particularly smaller companies that are highly sensitive to borrowing costs.—
Steven Dudash,
Forbes.com,
1 Apr. 2025
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Questioning Tulsi Gabbard about her appointment as the director of National Intelligence, Republican senators begged her to agree with them that Edward Snowden was a traitor for leaking sensitive documents and then fleeing to Moscow.—
David D. Kirkpatrick,
New Yorker,
31 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Inevitably all this tumult attracts the attention of a trio of huffy rival confectioners, Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas), and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton).—
Peter Rainer,
The Christian Science Monitor,
15 Dec. 2023
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Its engagingly huffy maestro, Michel Troisgros, is preparing to hand over the reins to César, his eldest son and head chef.—
Peter Rainer,
The Christian Science Monitor,
30 Nov. 2023
Adjective
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Black audiences have so few representative characters on screen, and Black womanhood alone is so touchy.—
Shania Russell,
EW.com,
9 Apr. 2025
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Manual focus is responsive, too, if a little bit touchy.—
PCMAG,
PCMAG,
12 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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It’s certainly made for these (end) times: a lushly surreal, cynically ticklish goof on the ineffectiveness of political summits as apocalyptic dread mounts.—
Robert Abele,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Oct. 2024
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While plenty of jokers and pranksters offered responses, most users responded by unexpectedly trauma-dumping on the ticklish Muppet.—
David Matthews,
New York Daily News,
31 Jan. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Tetchy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tetchy. Accessed 14 Apr. 2025.
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