querulousness


Also found in: Thesaurus.

quer·u·lous

 (kwĕr′ə-ləs, kwĕr′yə-)
adj.
1. Given to complaining; peevish.
2. Expressing a complaint or grievance; grumbling: a querulous voice; querulous comments.

[Middle English querulose, litigious, quarrelsome, from Old French querelos, from Late Latin querulōsus, querulous, from Latin querulus, from querī, to complain; see kwes- in Indo-European roots.]

quer′u·lous·ly adv.
quer′u·lous·ness n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.querulousness - the quality of being given to complaining
pettishness, snappishness, surliness, biliousness, peevishness, irritability, temper - a disposition to exhibit uncontrolled anger; "his temper was well known to all his employees"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
References in classic literature ?
Her grandmother slept most of the time, and when she did speak, it was with the querulousness of disease, and not in the tones of affection.
Princess Mary well knew this mood of quiet absorbed querulousness, which generally culminated in a burst of rage, and she went about all that morning as though facing a cocked and loaded gun and awaited the inevitable explosion.
They smooth pillows; and make arrowroot; they get up at nights; they bear complaints and querulousness; they see the sun shining out of doors and don't want to go abroad; they sleep on arm-chairs and eat their meals in solitude; they pass long long evenings doing nothing, watching the embers, and the patient's drink simmering in the jug; they read the weekly paper the whole week through; and Law's Serious Call or the Whole Duty of Man suffices them for literature for the year--and we quarrel with them because, when their relations come to see them once a week, a little gin is smuggled in in their linen basket.
He realized now that, even though it had moved his pity, Claire's querulousness had offended something in him.
I don't consider!'--he cried with sudden querulousness, 'why, God knows that this one child is there thought and object of my life, and yet he never prospers me--no, never!'
Lisbeth was going on, for she was not at all afraid of Seth, and usually poured into his ears all the querulousness which was repressed by her awe of Adam.
This flow of quotation and hospitality in Wegg indicated his observation of some little querulousness on the part of Venus.
Harold Ross, the renowned editor of The New Yorker, once facetiously remarked that his job involved a lot of quarreling with writers, and so some of the essays in this volume may provoke a disconcerting querulousness. Tim Good's piece on The Living Theatre, for example, is competent though quite introductory, a survey that tends to skim the surface of sensational events without fully developing their significance.
In 2011, the best of his work was collected into Whatever It Is, I Don't Like It, a title whose playful yet provocative querulousness says much about the columns Jacobson writes.
Another important quality of Emma--not a feature of her mind or her thinking, exactly--is her absolutely unwavering kindness to her father and her patience with his querulousness, fearfulness, and need for constant reassurance.
Think of how the most famous Imagist poem of all begins: "Everything depends upon...." Here, the querulousness of Dugan's rhetoric creates an angle, a slope that we slide down into the initial image.
REGARDING JAFFA'S LEGENDARY QUERULOUSNESS, others have tried to interpret it and put it into context--some to explain, some to justify, others to condemn.