snappish
"We should never jump to conclusions," said the Chef snappishly.
When newspapers question him, he snappishly says they need to "Grow up."
She smiles politely as voter after voter hangs up, or snappishly refuses to answer questions.

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
pettish
pettishly
petulance
petulancy
petulant
surlily
surliness
testily
testiness
testy

Examples of snappishly

snappishly
The commander exclaimed snappishly that he could not see his visitor's drift.
From Project Gutenberg
He returned the salute snappishly and glared at them sternly.
From Project Gutenberg
I tried to draw her into talk, but she twirled her fingers and replied snappishly in monosyllables.
From Project Gutenberg
To break upon suddenly with sharp, angry words; to treat snappishly; -- usually with up.
From Project Gutenberg
Irritated, he answered her snappishly.
From Project Gutenberg
It was this, in all probabilities, that made her speak snappishly to people who came to trade in the store or avail themselves of the post-office.
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.