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Webster 1913 Edition

{

, }

Noun.

[L.

petulania

: cf. F.

pétulance

. See

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. –

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

petulancy ‎(countable and uncountable, plural petulancies)

petulance; petulant attitude or behaviour
- Ben Jonson
  The petulancy of our words.