How to Use petulant in a Sentence

petulant

adjective
  • Her tone was petulant and angry.
  • The rest of the sports world sees a petulant young star and a coach, who might be in over his head.
    Kent Somers, AZCentral.com, 27 Oct. 2022
  • Fessy is left alone in the volcano to whine like a petulant child.
    Kyndall Cunningham, Vulture, 8 Apr. 2021
  • And as a petulant curator of my own tastes, this was enough to turn my nose at it.
    Bolu Babalola, Harper's BAZAAR, 27 May 2021
  • But, of course, the petulant president would rather take his lectern and stay home.
    Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 8 Oct. 2020
  • But that car was a boost bomb, with torque steer to shame a Saab and the demeanor of a petulant teenager.
    Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 20 Nov. 2020
  • This is more than the frustrated outburst of a petulant woman.
    Washington Post, 13 Jan. 2021
  • She's come off spoiled, petulant and worst of all privileged.
    Joey Guerra, Houston Chronicle, 8 Feb. 2018
  • Like a petulant child tired of losing, Beijing tossed the entire thing into the garbage bin.
    Timothy McLaughlin, The Atlantic, 20 Dec. 2021
  • Keep the customer happy no matter how ridiculous or petulant the request.
    Wired Staff, WIRED, 1 Nov. 2002
  • So does a trio of warbling rocks: petulant, stubborn creatures who insist on the rules.
    Justin Davidson, Vulture, 24 Nov. 2021
  • His petulant begging for a drop at the Memorial did not help matters).
    Daniel Rapaport, SI.com, 6 Aug. 2019
  • To deny them gifts on birthdays and Christmas because of it would be petulant and a mistake.
    Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 22 Dec. 2020
  • The film doesn’t make any effort to explain why Alma loves this petulant genius.
    Lindsey Bahr, kansascity, 18 Jan. 2018
  • Wu can render a petulant scowl hilarious by allowing it to linger on her face past the point of excess.
    Jiayang Fan, The New Yorker, 16 Sep. 2019
  • Do they ever: A petulant thumb sucker gets his appendages snipped off.
    David L. Coddon, sandiegouniontribune.com, 28 May 2017
  • The incident proved yet again this petulant country has forgotten how to use its inside voice and how to play well with each other.
    Roy Bragg, San Antonio Express-News, 17 May 2018
  • At first the cephalopods, like petulant tots, pulled off the glasses—until scientists plied them with treats: live shrimps.
    National Geographic, 19 May 2020
  • In Peru, this event was widely perceived as the petulant betrayal of a sore loser.
    Marcela Valdes, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2018
  • Trump’s term that maybe the petulant and mean-spirited president would grow and become a better man.
    Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2022
  • Heath said that contract dispute shouldn’t raise a flag on Molino being petulant.
    Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 28 Feb. 2017
  • When asked, his responses boil down to the equivalent of a one-word answer from a petulant child: Mine!
    Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 13 June 2023
  • But for this petulant group, another midlife crisis is always lurking around the corner.
    Andrew R. Chow, New York Times, 17 June 2018
  • And lost in this debate is the simple fact that Jarrar behaved like an obnoxious, petulant child.
    Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press, 22 Apr. 2018
  • As the emotional child in his family, he was imbued with a streak of petulant darkness, which runs subtly through all of his work.
    Carrie Battan, The New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2020
  • Nell got to see me as a daughter—witnessing flashes of my grumpy and petulant teenage self, or my mother brushing loose strands of hair out of my face.
    Alex Postman, CNT, 7 Sep. 2017
  • Ostriches flounced back and forth like petulant ballerinas.
    Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Dec. 2018
  • In today’s world, the petulant disagreements between thetwo seem quaint.
    Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2022
  • Yes, scholars have a legendary reputation for petty feuds and petulant turf wars.
    Patty Limerick, The Denver Post, 25 Oct. 2019
  • Smith's Dickinson, though, is nothing short of petulant teen rebel.
    Robyn Bahr, Billboard, 28 Oct. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'petulant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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