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petulant
in a sentence

show 189 more with this conextual meaning
  • There was no hint of hair on his face, his pudgy hands were baby smooth, and he had pouting lips that curled petulantly as he sipped from a flagon.   (source)
    petulantly = in an unreasonably upset manner
  • Not a helpless or pleading child, but a petulant one, the type of tough boy who's known too little love and is quick to blame others for his mistakes.   (source)
    petulant = prone to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • She heard LuLing call to her: "Why so late?" Seated in her brown vinyl easy chair, LuLing looked like a petulant child on a throne.   (source)
    petulant = unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • Perhaps the holes in the door are a reflection of the father's petulance more than his love.   (source)
    petulance = unreasonable annoyance or upset
  • There are days when all I want is to be free of him and his petulance and neediness.   (source)
    petulance = tendency to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • He heard the petulance in his own voice.   (source)
    petulance = unreasonable annoyance or upset
  • "He doesn't look it, but he was surprisingly sweet with Estha," Ammu said.
    "So why don't you marry him then?" Rahel said petulantly.   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable anger or upset
  • Isabelle looked petulant.   (source)
    petulant = unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • The eyes are petulant, mischievous.   (source)
  • I knew I was being difficult, not to mention petulant.   (source)
  • Burton was nervous, jumpy, petulant.   (source)
    petulant = prone to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • At six, Grandma woke, hungry and petulant.   (source)
    petulant = unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • "Go ahead, scoff," he said, petulant.   (source)
  • HONEY (Petulantly): No! If I can't do my interpretive dance, I don't want to dance with anyone.   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable upset
  • He is a whining, petulant little peacock.   (source)
    petulant = prone to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • He knows by the white man's look of disapproval and petulance that he is being told to get on his way, that he is "stepping out of line."   (source)
    petulance = annoyance or upset
  • BANNISTER: (A little petulant) I wanted that there front seat in the jury box.   (source)
    petulant = unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • Adam said petulantly, "I'm not helpless, Lee."   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable anger or upset
  • Tall, with rather curly brown hair; orange tie and pale green shirt; a little bit petulant, a little bit of a pansy, thought Leamas.   (source)
    petulant = prone to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • "There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly.   (source)
    petulantly = in an annoyed or upset manner
  • His wound was making him sound petulant.   (source)
    petulant = easily upset
  • Rambert tossed his head petulantly.   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable anger or upset
  • For more than a year they had waited on a Queen who was petulant, cruel, contradictory, miserable.   (source)
    petulant = prone to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • Mrs Fellows slept uneasily, dreaming of weddings. Once she said aloud, "My train. Be careful of my train."
    "What's that?" he asked petulantly.   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable anger or upset
  • Dollie sat down backwards suddenly with her legs sprawled in front of her and cried with a petulantly accusing voice, "Johnnie, you pushed me on purpose!" and everyone laughed.   (source)
    petulantly = unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • His manner varies from genial bullying when he is in a good humor to stormy petulance when anything goes wrong;   (source)
    petulance = unreasonable annoyance and irritability
  • "You might have told me there was a
    snake behind me!" I said petulantly.   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable anger or upset
  • He jerked his shoulder petulantly away from the grip of his questioner.   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable upset
  • I told myself that I could never stop, and with a gust of petulance I resolved to stop forthwith.   (source)
    petulance = unreasonable annoyance or upset  OR  tendency to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • "I don't want a life-sized portrait of myself," answered the lad, swinging round on the music-stool, in a wilful, petulant manner.   (source)
    petulant = unreasonably upset
  • A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed.   (source)
    petulance = tendency to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • "Thunder!" he remarked petulantly.   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable anger or upset
  • All gaiety was gone from the company; some were sullen and silent, some were irritable and petulant, none were gentle-humoured, all were thirsty.   (source)
    petulant = easily annoyed or upset
  • "You ought to have sent word, or told me this morning, and you ought to have remembered how busy I was," continued Meg petulantly, for even turtledoves will peck when ruffled.   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable anger or upset
  • "No; nor will she miss now," cries The Vengeance, petulantly.   (source)
  • At other times, she would turn petulantly away, and hide her face in her hands, or even push him off angrily; and then he took care to let her alone, for he was certain of doing no good.   (source)
  • glancing, with a petulant expression   (source)
    petulant = unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • They were, each of them, brilliant, frustrating, stubborn, petulant.†   (source)
  • What do I care what the neighbors will say about my petulance.†   (source)
  • "Well, you have," wails a petulant Yuri.†   (source)
  • Claire replied, her voice petulant.†   (source)
  • The twining voices sounded petulant.†   (source)
  • The combination of being so roughly handled by Barb Wiggin and discovering that my grandmother had been free to attend the pageant—but had chosen not to attend—was deleterious to Owen's mood; he grew cranky and petulant.†   (source)
  • Lola was immediately petulant, and Briony assumed that these rapid changes of mood were part of her recent upset.†   (source)
  • You're not helping," Astrid says, petulant, kissing Donald on the nose.†   (source)
  • Joffrey looked as petulant as only a boy prince can look.†   (source)
  • "Why didn't you tell me that's where you were going?" he said petulantly.†   (source)
  • He was broadshouldered and bored-looking, in a soft gray coat, and despite his age there was something petulant and cherubic about him, overly ripe, soft white hands and a soft managerial blandness.†   (source)
  • It sounded petulant and childish even to me.†   (source)
  • I finally asked, an unintentional note of petulance in my voice.†   (source)
  • The gesture probably looked petulant coming from a sixteen-year-old nobody, but I didn't care.†   (source)
  • The page's name was Dunstey, an insufferably petulant little boy with an important father.†   (source)
  • Even at baseball games, we parked by the exit and left at the eighth inning, me and Go a predictable set of mustard-smeared whines, petulant and sun-fevered: We never get to see the end.†   (source)
  • She was feeling her age this morning, more than a little petulant.†   (source)
  • They had been peaceable at first, offering to go as far away as the Council wished: but when it had become plain that their request was not going to be granted on any terms, they had become first petulant and then aggressive and the Council had had to take strong measures.†   (source)
  • Why did I act like such a petulant brat?†   (source)
  • A flutter of black wings deep in the trees to my right, the petulant squawking of the crows, and through my eyepiece, a tiny green dot sparkling among the brown and white.†   (source)
  • You make me sound like a petulant four-year-old.†   (source)
  • When Jaime met Miguel in a neighborhood cafe, all his suspicion was swept away be a wave of sympathy, because the man across the table from him nervously stirring his coffee was not the petulant extremist bully he had expected, but a tremulous, sensitive young man who was fighting off tears as he described the symptoms of his sister's illness.†   (source)
  • 'I haven't the time,' Lieutenant Scheisskopf would grumble petulantly.†   (source)
  • Even in poverty, he was as petulant and quick to anger as a spoiled child.†   (source)
  • In her voice she heard the petulant echo of her teenage self and hated herself for it.†   (source)
  • The petulance I detected was certainly my imagination.†   (source)
  • Clinton, Howe's second-in-command, was the least impressive in appearance, a short, fat, colorless man who could be shy and petulant.†   (source)
  • The sun was bright as a sword but the air had the snapping bite of a petulant child.†   (source)
  • His longest speech, a threat to kill everybody and like it, was petulant and childish as well—especially when immediately followed by the observation This is fun.†   (source)
  • He had a small, petulant mouth, and thin hair clinging to a bald forehead.†   (source)
  • It would take a few days for my petulance to subside.†   (source)
  • Max scanned the row of hideous, petulant-looking creatures that were staring insolently at him from behind their muzzles.†   (source)
  • I have no wish to put myself in the same category: irrational, petulant.†   (source)
  • 77 Her tone wasn't petulant, or fretful, for she was possessed of a remarkable equanimity, more the way one thinks distinguished, older people to be than young teenage girls.†   (source)
  • When it got so close that the petulant and neurotic motion of the rods and cams was audible, and when the steam escaping from half a hundred pre-war gaskets sounded like a menagerie of snakes, Guariglia stepped off the tracks and waved the cigar.†   (source)
  • It was strange: there was more petulance in his voice than true anger or resentment.†   (source)
  • When he came back at times like this he would be petulant and penitent.†   (source)
  • When he seemed fully himself again, strong, and no longer petulant and irritable, she broached the subject of the farm.†   (source)
  • And the baby was weary and petulant, and he cried softly until Juana gave him her breast,   (source)
    petulant = unreasonably upset
  • ...the little eyes half scowling, half petulant.   (source)
    petulant = unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • "I'm angry with you, Emil," she broke out with petulance.   (source)
    petulance = unreasonably upset
  • Whatever petulance she uttered in her throaty voice worried him.   (source)
    petulance = unreasonable annoyance or upset
  • If that creature knew how bitter, he'd be ashamed to cloud its removal with idle petulance.   (source)
    petulance = unreasonable annoyance or upset  OR  tendency to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • 'Oh, Nelly!' she added petulantly, jerking her head away from my hands, 'you've combed my hair quite out of curl!'   (source)
    petulantly = with unreasonable anger or upset
  • Now, let us have no petulance.   (source)
    petulance = unreasonable annoyance or upset  OR  tendency to be unreasonably annoyed or upset
  • I shuffled along, kicking pebbles petulantly on my way.†   (source)
  • The World Serpent snarled petulantly, tugging at the steel cable in his mouth.†   (source)
  • Mike asked with a hint of petulance, interrupting Jacob mid-sentence.†   (source)
  • Instead, Arachne stamped her eight legs petulantly.†   (source)
  • 'That was your idea,' Colonel Cathcart accused him Petulantly.†   (source)
  • "I'd send you to a nunnery, but even those saintly women haven't the patience for your petulance.†   (source)
  • HONEY: (Petulance creeping in) It will steady me, dear.†   (source)
  • The last was addressed to Jace, rather petulantly.†   (source)
  • Philip's mouth swelled petulantly; he did not answer; he waited; Rearden let him wait.†   (source)
  • For the first time there was a shadow of youth in Sebastian's voice, an edge of petulance.†   (source)
  • Colonel Scheisskopf demanded petulantly.†   (source)
  • A woman shrieked suddenly, with the demanding petulance of hysteria, "What are we going to do?"†   (source)
  • Dunbar demanded petulantly of the doctors.†   (source)
  • The officer stamped his foot petulantly, turning weak with frustration.†   (source)
  • Luke's bitchiness was inept and sentimental by comparison, mere callow petulance.†   (source)
  • "We better get these dishes washed," Benson said petulantly.†   (source)
  • When she wheeled about to confront her dresser in triumph, Olga coolly observed how entertained the neighbors would be by this evidence of the famous actress's petulance, then she turned and left the room.†   (source)
  • "You took three," he said petulantly.†   (source)
  • I said petulantly.†   (source)
  • In sudden petulance, Corporal Nettle sat down in the road, took off his boots and flung them into a field.†   (source)
  • And suddenly Daddy had been wide awake, his eyes set deeply into their fat eyesockets, glittering with a kind of stupid, evil petulance.†   (source)
  • This gave his features the look of a pouting baby, and his voice carried a tone of petulance as he said: "Why …. he recruits …. that is to say, there are the levies and he enlists from —"†   (source)
  • I asked petulantly.†   (source)
  • They had heard Daddy's batterings at the door all the way across the lobby, the batterings and his voice, hoarse and petulantly angry in a weak-king sort of a way, vomiting promises of punishment, vomiting profanity, promising both of them that they would live to regret betraying him after he had slaved his guts out for them over the years.†   (source)
  • For Eragon, it had been the arrogance Glaedr claimed he sometimes displayed, his feelings concerning the men he hadkilled, and all the petulance, selfishness, anger, and other shortcomings to which he, like so many others, was prey.†   (source)
  • "You had every chance in the world and you threw it all away for that--" and I jabbed my wrenched rag toward Grandma's face watching us petulantly from behind the glass.†   (source)
  • Magnus snapped his fingers petulantly.†   (source)
  • 'But they're getting all the fame and opportunity,' Milo persisted with a petulance that bordered on sniveling.†   (source)
  • 'These are very critical times,' Colonel Cathcart asserted petulantly from a far corner of the office, paying no attention to Colonel Korn.†   (source)
  • The difference was that here I could disagree with him without risking a flood of abuse or petulance.†   (source)
  • The boy kneeling on the floor looked up at him, nervous and petulant.†   (source)
  • Her small mouth twitched in a petulant smile.†   (source)
  • My voice sounded petulant even to myself.†   (source)
  • "You're late," came the vaguely petulant reply.†   (source)
  • "I don't want any more stories," Bran snapped, his voice petulant.†   (source)
  • And yet, paradoxically, it sounded weaker, slurred, petulant … as if he were drunk.†   (source)
  • The booming, the coarse and petulant voice, the blueblack rug like snakes?†   (source)
  • "Danny!" the hoarse, petulant voice roared from above them.†   (source)
  • "Very well, Your Ladyship Brooding St. Petulant," she says.†   (source)
  • "I don't want food," the little lord said, in a reedy, petulant voice.†   (source)
  • The novitiate huffed, appearing petulant at his lack of progress.†   (source)
  • "You should have loved me," he said, and now he sounded petulant.†   (source)
  • But it sounded petulant; and it wasn't true, I knew.†   (source)
  • Donna, who missed New York badly, was by turns sullen, petulant, and just plain scared.†   (source)
  • We older girls elbow our way past the younger girls, their petulant "no fair!†   (source)
  • In the completeness of her loneliness, she was growing more petulant and irrational.†   (source)
  • Petulant—sulky, crabby, peevish, moody, sullen.†   (source)
  • A little smacking Felicity with her own petulant story about dear old Father.†   (source)
  • How could he?" a woman was demanding with petulant terror.†   (source)
  • "It's occurred to me sometimes," he said, petulant.†   (source)
  • She was being what my father called "petulant," as in, "Susie, don't speak to me in that petulant tone."†   (source)
  • I flashed her the smile I give petulant women, the lighten-up smile, the one Amy called the "beloved Nicky grin," and then the woman recognized me.†   (source)
  • Some I found to be impatient, another grave shortcoming when it came to caring for Suleiman, who could be exasperating and at times childishly petulant.†   (source)
  • I know from the petulant tone in Boney's voice—she will live in permanent exasperation from now on, and the more annoyed she gets, the more people will dismiss her.†   (source)
  • It was exactly the wrong tone—smug, petulant, utterly unconcerned—and exactly the wrong question, because I didn't know the answer, which infuriated me.†   (source)
  • Her small mouth had turned petulant.†   (source)
  • Joffrey gave a petulant shrug.†   (source)
  • Because each man — " His father's voice, going up higher and higher, becoming something maddening, not human at all, something squealing and petulant and maddening, the voice of the Ghost-God, the Pig-God, coming dead at him out of the radio and "No!" he screamed back.†   (source)
  • There was a tiger in the hall, and now the tiger was just around the corner, still crying out in that shrill and petulant and lunatic rage, the roque mallet slamming, because this tiger walked on two legs and it was — He woke with a sudden indrawn gasp, sitting bolt upright in bed, eyes wide and staring into the darkness, hands crossed in front of his face.†   (source)
  • To his political rivals and enemies Adams's predawn departure was another ill-advised act of a petulant old man.†   (source)
  • I also knew I'd go to the meeting and put on my best face, because being difficult and petulant was about as bad as I got when it came to my mother.†   (source)
  • I stared at him, shocked, and also feeling guilty, because I had to admit that this pleased me a teensy bit in a petulant way.†   (source)
  • The company commander, a slightly overweight youth, stared at my hands with an imperious demeanor and petulant, dissatisfied eyes.†   (source)
  • But the words that actually came out of Alec's mouth were quite different—and sounded petulant, even to his own ears.†   (source)
  • Pippa lets out a petulant sigh and stands sullenly in front of me, throwing a glance to Felicity, who shrugs.†   (source)
  • Dagny, why don't you sit in the chair as one is supposed to?" he said at last; his voice was petulant.†   (source)
  • Her mouth was a tight little crescent, the petulant mouth of a child demanding adulation-on the spreading, pallid face of a woman past fifty.†   (source)
  • With a look of stubborn bewilderment, with the last of her effort at self-deceit, she moaned in a voice of tearfully petulant reproach, "Are you really incapable of forgiveness?"†   (source)
  • Wesley Mouch glanced down at his sheet of paper, then said in a petulant tone of voice, "If you want me to go ahead, you'll have to declare a state of total emergency.†   (source)
  • His lower lip was a petulant bulb and the pale, brownish pupils of his eyes looked like the yolks of eggs smeared under the not fully translucent whites.†   (source)
  • Their expressions ranged from blank apathy to the relieved look of cheats who had believed that the game could end no other way and were making no effort to contest it or regret it-to the petulant blindness of Lawson, who refused to be conscious of anything-to the peculiar intensity of Jim, whose face suggested a secret smile.†   (source)
  • Wesley Mouch seemed afraid to address him; Mouch's face assumed an expression of petulant stubbornness, like a signal of command pushing the others forward; whatever their qualifications to dispose of the fate of the steel industry, they had been brought here to act as Mouch's conversational bodyguards.†   (source)
  • "I believe it was your idea that Luke take him in the first place," Hodge said, still feeling, for some reason, petulant.†   (source)
  • "But petulant you are," she said.†   (source)
  • Why so petulant, lover?†   (source)
  • "But the war will be over then!" he cried petulantly, pulling away from her.†   (source)
  • Take me out of myself," petulantly, "tell me all about the new plays."†   (source)
  • Why," he repeated petulantly, "should alpine scenery be thought conducive to study?"†   (source)
  • Whereat Rambert had shrugged his shoulders petulantly and walked out.†   (source)
  • Gant rocked petulantly, spitting into the fire, making a weak whining moan from time to time.†   (source)
  • He went petulantly into the front room and found his coat.†   (source)
  • His thin lip began to tremble petulantly.†   (source)
  • And you!" she turned petulantly on her sister.†   (source)
  • After a long pause he said petulantly, "I don't keep asking you questions about your family."†   (source)
  • His wild bombast was tempered now by senile petulance.†   (source)
  • "What are you standing there for?" screamed Big Brother at length, looking up in an agony of petulance.†   (source)
  • Already ashamed of that petulance, of that gesticulation of the hands when charging at the head of his troops, Mr. Ramsay rather sheepishly prodded his son's bare legs once more, and then, as if he had her leave for it, with a movement which oddly reminded his wife of the great sea lion at the Zoo tumbling backwards after swallowing his fish and walloping off so that the water in the tank washes from side to side, he dived into the evening air which, already thinner, was taking the…†   (source)
  • Neil spoke petulantly about the state of the world, about crying over spilt milk, change as a law of existence, adaptability, and the importance of getting in on the ground floor.†   (source)
  • "It is all very well for you to keep on mentioning that, my dear Grummore," exclaimed King Pellinore petulantly, "but who is this King, what, that is to live so long, what, accordin' to you?"†   (source)
  • "I don't see why you're so much nicer to her than to me," said Scarlett petulantly, one afternoon when Melanie and Pitty had retired to take their naps and she was alone with him.†   (source)
  • At night when she would have no more of him, pushing him out of the door petulantly, with her small hands suddenly strong on his shoulders, his silver thrust into her bosom, he went away hungry as he came.†   (source)
  • But these were not to Cottard's liking, and his reactions varied on each occasion, from mere petulance to great despondency.†   (source)
  • He said, petulantly, assuming the tone of an authority he could never have exercised: "That boy of yours, Guy, that Keating fellow, he's getting to be impossible.†   (source)
  • Then at sunset she sent him away with her pretty petulance, and Cuckoo bathed and perfumed her again and put on her fresh clothes, soft white silk against her flesh and peach-colored silk outside, the silken garments that Wang Lung had given, and upon her feet Cuckoo put small embroidered shoes, and then the girl walked into the court and examined the little pool with its five gold fish, and Wang Lung stood and stared at the wonder of what he had.†   (source)
  • Go!" she tossed her head petulantly.†   (source)
  • Just before they came home, Joe Gambell, in a fit of concocted petulance, resigned his position, and announced that he was returning to Henderson.†   (source)
  • When thwarted or annoyed in any way, the heavy benevolence of her face was dislodged by a thunder-cloud of petulance, and her wide pouting underlip rolled out like a window-shade.†   (source)
  • Gant dozed in the parlor or in his own room, waking and sleeping by starts, moaning petulantly, detached, vaguely aware only of the meaning of events, and resentful because of the sudden indifference to him.†   (source)
  • "This is too much!" cried the chaplain, striking petulantly at one of Fra Angelico's angels.†   (source)
  • Nell, I've spoken to you three times," protested Bo, petulantly.†   (source)
  • I felt a gust of hysterical petulance, and went aft and stared dismally at nothing.†   (source)
  • I don't speak your language," she retorted petulantly.†   (source)
  • No murmur, no impatience, no petulance did come from him.†   (source)
  • Front-de-Boeuf would have replied, but Prince John's petulance and levity got the start.†   (source)
  • [218] Not for that will I adopt their petulance or folly, even to the extent of being ashamed of it.†   (source)
  • 'But we go to Benares,' he replied petulantly.†   (source)
  • "The marriage is no misfortune in itself," she retorted with some little petulance.†   (source)
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