fretfulness.

A restless tendency to worry or become irritable.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• persistent fretfulness
• signs of fretfulness

On the page

Her fretfulness grew while she waited.

The letter revealed a trace of fretfulness.

He mistook the child’s fretfulness for defiance.

Usage notes

Primary category: fear. Forms: fretfulness is normally a mass noun unless a particular instance is specified. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.