Dictionary entry

Petulance

Webster's Dictionary 1913

{ Pet″u‐lance (?), Pet″u‐lan‐cy (?), } n. [L. petulania: cf. F. pétulance. See Petulant.] The quality or state of being petulant; temporary peevishness; pettishness; capricious ill humor. “The petulancy of our words.” B. Jonson.

Like pride in some, and like petulance in others. Clarendon.

The lowering eye, the petulance, the frown. Cowper.

Syn.Petulance, Peevishness. — Peevishness implies the permanence of a sour, fretful temper; petulance implies temporary or capricious irritation.