FRETFUL Synonyms: 210 Similar and Opposite Words

fretful

adjective

Definition of fretful

as in irritable

tending towards or characterized by agitation or irritability They finally lulled the fretful baby to sleep. I kept having fretful thoughts about what would happen if we couldn't pay our bills.

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Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of fretful The quintessential late-’80s teen, Ryder here plays a fretful mom. — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 27 Nov. 2025 But that doesn’t mean viewers won’t be increasingly exasperated by the ways the screenplay forces Knightley’s character into a clumsy, fretful investigation. — The New York Times, New York Times, 10 Oct. 2025 Investors are fretful heading into the August payrolls report. — Sarah Min, CNBC, 3 Sep. 2025 Suddenly the Toronto crowd’s sound turned from festive to fretful. — Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 6 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for fretful

Recent Examples of Synonyms for fretful

Adjective

Coach There’s no better feeling than walking into your last show of the day, irritable and hungry, only to discover that snacks are being served.

— Anna Grace Lee, Vogue, 17 Sep. 2026
If a relative or housemate seems irritable, ask what’s going on instead of working around the mood.

— Tarot.com, Chicago Tribune, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of irritable

Adjective

There were maybe a few extra news crews reporting on the show as people filed in and out, but if Sheeran hadn’t brought it up, the crowd did not seem like one particularly anxious about any elephant in the room.

— Brendan Menapace, Billboard, 20 Sep. 2026
Dislodging these forces from the machinery of the state has been neither swift nor straightforward, and even those most anxious for change are hard-pressed to offer practical solutions.

— Will Freeman, The Atlantic, 20 Sep. 2026

Definition of anxious

Adjective

Millions of amateur athletes play tackle football each year, and as evidence mounts at the professional level of the dangers of CTE, parents are increasingly worried about their children going into the sport.

— Alexandra Pattillo, Scientific American, 23 Sep. 2026
At the start of the novel, when the Koh children, Bo, DH, and Mido, are struggling in Korean schools after years of living abroad, their mother, Helen, gets worried.

— Sanjena Sathian, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of worried

Adjective

Still, Lyon was barely troubled cruising to victory after an eighth-minute own goal by Laia Ballesté, under pressure from Dumornay, to turn a cross by Salma Paralluelo into her own net.

— ABC News, ABC News, 23 Sep. 2026
Set in Palm Springs, California, and seen on Broadway in 2011, the play probes a rich, powerful, troubled and Reagan-esque West Coast political family and makes much of the metaphor of the arid, infertile desert.

— Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 23 Sep. 2026