fretful

adjective

fret·ful ˈfret-fəl

Synonyms of fretful next

: disposed to fret : irritable, restless

fretfully

ˈfret-fə-lē

adverb

fretfulness noun

Examples of fretful in a Sentence

He fell into a fretful sleep.

Recent Examples on the Web Within hours of the attacks, fretful voices worried about making a civilizational clash a self-fulfilling reality. —

Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 19 Oct. 2023 To be robust but sour, like an alarm clock, is to make a fretful noise. —

The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2023 Some economists in Denmark worry that the country could become too dependent on Novo Nordisk, with fretful comparisons to the fate of the Finnish economy when Nokia lost its dominance in the cellphone industry. —

Eshe Nelson, New York Times, 29 Aug. 2023 The Mitnick Affair drove a fretful international conversation not just about hacking, but also about the internet itself. —

Alex Traub, New York Times, 20 July 2023 But even without a song to call their own, Milky and Kanagawa have elevated what was once a mere prop in a storybook musical into a three-hanky barnstormer of a character — the cow that rueful Jack of Beanstalk fame (Cole Thompson) is ordered to sell by his eternally fretful mother (Aymee Garcia). —

Peter Marks, Washington Post, 25 Aug. 2022 Its annual settings are attended with a kind of fretful enthusiasm — a bit like Groundhog Day, if Punxsutawney Phil was the herald of nuclear winter, with no spring ever to come again. —

Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 20 Jan. 2022 Inside the Coliseum, the crowd — tucked into the Coliseum’s unique one-bowl formation underneath a low roof and separated into vaccinated and unvaccinated sections — generated a fretful murmur following Kris Letang’s goal just 2:01 into the first period. —

Jerry Beach, Forbes, 22 May 2021 The performances, in a cast that also includes Enrico Colantoni, Caitlin FitzGerald and David Cross, are all unimpeachable, but the series depends especially on the excellent Davis and Lawler, who are particularly well-matched as young and old Kirsten, deep, intense, fretful and brave. —

Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 2021 See More

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