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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Recent Examples of fretful
As Queenie, navigating empty relationships and professional disappointments on a journey from self-sabotage to self-worth, Brown makes a whole person from a variety of attitudes — hopeful, hopeless, hungover, exuberant, fretful, thoughtful.
—
Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2024
Too many young people are anxious, fretful and socially isolated.
—Sarah Lent, Forbes, 21 Oct. 2024
Her father, a renowned music educator as well as a composer and conductor, was a conspicuous voice urging fretful Americans not to dismiss the music but to listen to what the songs had to say.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Nov. 2024
There’s naïve Jill (Nicola Turner and then, in adulthood, Helena Wilson), excitable Ruby (Sophia Ally and Ophelia Lovibond), and fretful Gloria (Nancy Allsop and Leanne Best); and then—played by Lara McDonnell as a teen and by Donnelly in a pointed piece of double-casting as an adult—there’s Joan.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for fretful
Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2024
Too many young people are anxious, fretful and socially isolated.
—Sarah Lent, Forbes, 21 Oct. 2024
Her father, a renowned music educator as well as a composer and conductor, was a conspicuous voice urging fretful Americans not to dismiss the music but to listen to what the songs had to say.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Nov. 2024
There’s naïve Jill (Nicola Turner and then, in adulthood, Helena Wilson), excitable Ruby (Sophia Ally and Ophelia Lovibond), and fretful Gloria (Nancy Allsop and Leanne Best); and then—played by Lara McDonnell as a teen and by Donnelly in a pointed piece of double-casting as an adult—there’s Joan.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 29 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for fretful
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fretful
Adjective
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And even in what was a stilted match played in an increasingly irritable atmosphere, Rogers and Tielemans delivered with an assist each.—
Jacob Tanswell,
New York Times,
14 Apr. 2025
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This stretch can worsen pain in people with back pain, very tight hamstrings, or irritable nerves.—
Aubrey Bailey, PT, DPT, CHT,
Verywell Health,
4 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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How to know when your dog is agitated Identifying an anxious or aggressive dog can be tricky, as negative and positive emotional indicators can often be confused.—
Karissa Waddick,
USA Today,
19 Apr. 2025
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The Fed chief said Wednesday the central bank can be patient while assessing data on inflation and employment, which are its dual mandates, while anxious consumers and businesses eye potentially prolonged economic instability.—
Alexis Simendinger,
The Hill,
18 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Proposals for Combating Polarization and Extremism By Larry Diamond, Edward B. Foley, and Richard H. Pildes The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy From the Fringes By Nick Troiano Two new books explore the deeply troubled election system in the United States.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
22 Apr. 2025
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Meanwhile, some at City Hall have heard rumblings about major cuts to the planning department, which processes development applications and updates zoning plans, as well as the troubled Animal Services Department.—
David Zahniser,
Los Angeles Times,
21 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Pedestrians scoot past agitated mutterers or calculate their chances of survival before stepping into a crosswalk.—
Justin Davidson,
Curbed,
18 Apr. 2025
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Female carpenter bees won’t sting unless they’re confined in your hand or become highly agitated.—
Evan Moore,
Charlotte Observer,
16 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Others are worried about the fate of the Smithsonian more broadly.—
Deborah Barfield Berry,
USA Today,
20 Apr. 2025
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An overwhelming 92 percent are worried about a potential recession in 2025.—
Nicholas Creel,
MSNBC Newsweek,
19 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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At times brutal and always volatile, the album functions as a sort of electro-shock therapy applied from the shoulders down, layering hard beats, ambient whorls, and nervous acid ticks to trigger a state of full-body rapture.—
Jazz Monroe,
Pitchfork,
18 Apr. 2025
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At the same time, sellers might get nervous if deal activity slows down.—
James Nelson,
Forbes.com,
18 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Ernst & Young found that 71% of U.S. employees are apprehensive about AI, with 48% expressing more concern now than a year ago and 41% believing that AI is evolving too quickly.—
Ryan Farsai,
Forbes.com,
22 Apr. 2025
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President Donald Trump’s U-turn on the Ukraine war – and his diplomatic embrace of Russia, the country that started it – has left American allies in Europe apprehensive about the future.—
Ned Temko,
The Christian Science Monitor,
27 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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Rojas’s recollections weren’t peevish—fine work was produced under these conditions.—
Ian Parker,
The New Yorker,
20 Jan. 2025
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The songs are muscular and syncretic as ever, but the normally peevish rapper doesn’t maintain his trolling energy for the full record, settling into a questioning and pensive pace.—
Stephen Kearse,
TIME,
8 Dec. 2024
Cite this Entry
“Fretful.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fretful. Accessed 1 May. 2025.
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