peevish
"Who told you?" he demanded peevishly.
He peevishly accused the government of lying.
Her voice was peevishly insistent.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Bad-tempered
argumentative
bad-tempered
be hell on wheelsidiom
be like a bear with a sore headidiom
be spoiling for a fightidiom
grouchiness
grouchy
grumpily
grumpiness
grumpy
pettishly
petulance
petulancy
petulant
petulantly
surlily
surliness
testily
testiness
testy

Examples of peevishly

peevishly
He could react peevishly to criticism, for instance.
From OregonLive.com
Peevishly he kicked the turf with the toe of his boot.
From Project Gutenberg
And now that these promises cannot be redeemed, they are wroth, and peevishly threaten the great states with disobedience and revolt.
From Project Gutenberg
Then there was a crunching crash, and the engineer swore peevishly to himself.
From Project Gutenberg
I have a remembrance of cursing, peevishly, in my bewilderment.
From Project Gutenberg
The duke spoke peevishly, twitching his sunken lips in what was plainly an effort to pout them.
From Project Gutenberg
She turned her back on him peevishly, as if tired with the efforts of her memory.
From Project Gutenberg
He cut me short, peevishly enough, being naturally a poor, weak, womanish sort of man.
From Project Gutenberg
He seized his unfilled glass, looked into it, and pushed it from him peevishly.
From Project Gutenberg
He started, when he saw the landlady's broad face look peevishly out of one of the windows in the second story.
From Project Gutenberg
The old lady who had entertained fears of the insane man was both peevishly outspoken and addicted to covert innuendo.
From Project Gutenberg
And she walked away frowning, and seated herself at the piano and began peevishly striking at the keys.
From Project Gutenberg
A thin, squeaky voice peevishly demanded to know what was wanted.
From Project Gutenberg
To dispute angrily; to quarrel peevishly and noisily; to brawl; to altercate.
From Project Gutenberg
She withdrew it a little peevishly, after a moment's pause.
From Project Gutenberg
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.