tetchy

adjective

ˈte-chē

tetchier; tetchiest

Synonyms of tetchy next

: irritably or peevishly sensitive : touchy

the tetchy manner of two women living in the same house—

Elizabeth Taylor †1975

tetchily

ˈte-chə-lē

adverb

tetchiness

ˈte-chē-nəs

noun

Did you know?

One of the first cited uses of tetchy occurs in William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet (1596). Etymologists are not certain how the word came about, but some have suggested that it derives from tetch, an obsolete noun meaning "habit." The similarity both in meaning and pronunciation to touchy might lead you to conclude that tetchy is related to that word, but there is no conclusive evidence to suggest such a connection. The adjectives teched and tetched, meaning "mentally unbalanced," are variations of touched, and are probably also unrelated to tetchy.

Examples of tetchy in a Sentence

a morose and tetchy resident of a nursing home

Recent Examples on the Web Wentz had already had a tetchy relationship with a previous high-profile backup, Nick Foles, and Hurts was no sure thing: in college, at Alabama, he’d been benched in the middle of the national championship game in favor of Tua Tagovailoa, who was seen as a more dynamic, high-upside prospect. —

Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2023 His years of watching films and writing about them had given him a tetchy sort of autonomy. —

Rachel Cusk, Harper's Magazine, 10 Sep. 2023 But an encounter on the road with a couple of hooligans leads instead to a courtroom in Detroit, where Raylan gives testimony and Willa is chastised by tetchy Judge Alvin Guy (Keith David, sonorous as always) for laughing at cat videos on her phone. —

Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2023 In practice, the technology is tetchy. —

Tatum Hunter, BostonGlobe.com, 8 Mar. 2023 The administration has at times had a tetchy relationship with the company after excluding it from an event held to promote EVs. —

Russ Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 15 Feb. 2023 On the side of the romance, there’s a tetchy courtship between Billy Eichner’s character, a never-been-in-a-relationship podcaster and LGBTQ-museum employee, and a masculine, never-going-to-respond-to-your-tap-on-Grindr lawyer played by Luke Macfarlane. —

Vulture, 3 Oct. 2022 Screenwriters Kyle Jarrow and Liz W. Garcia’s idea of sparkling romantic banter more closely resembles a tetchy social media spat between anonymous strangers: Nevertheless, the battle lines are thus drawn. —

Guy Lodge, Variety, 29 July 2022 Meanwhile, quantum devices are notoriously tetchy. —

Jonathon Keats, Discover Magazine, 19 Dec. 2016

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