peevishly

From peevish + -ly.

peevishly (comparative more peevishly, superlative most peevishly)

1. In a peevish manner.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XI:

     "See / Or shut your eyes," said Nature peevishly, / "It nothing skills: I cannot help my case: / 'Tis the Last Judgment's fire must cure this place, / Calcine its clods and set my prisoners free."

   • 1938, Evelyn Waugh, Scoop, book I, ch. 2,1:

     His uncles peevishly claimed the paper.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 78:

     Seated in a kitchen chair, and rasping at his scorched shoulders, he said peevishly, "By ginger, it gives a man the willies, left alone in a place like this all day."