peevishnessn.

1468 in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) II. 389 Eythir he shulde be a pope or els in dyspeyr to be depryved de omni beneficio ecclesiastico for symony, lechory, periory, and doubble variable pevyshnesse, and for admynystryng wythout auctoryte.

1582 G. Martin Discouerie Corrupt. Script. Heretikes Pref. sig. aiv^v Why do they change the title, striking out S. Paules name..? and what an heretical peeuishnes is this.

1601 F. Godwin Catal. Bishops of Eng. 223 [A] sumptuous toombe..which by the barbarous and doltish peeuishnes of some body, is pittifully defaced.

1664 H. More Modest Enq. Myst. Iniquity ii. ii. xxii. 468 Undoubtedly our Heroical Reformers did not..act out of peevishness and spight, and please their own humour and impetuosity of spirit.

1666 G. Torriano Proverbial Phrases 133/1 in Piazza Universale The pievishness of some mothers, who when they can safely suckle the child, will not.

1523 J. Skelton Goodly Garlande of Laurell 637 With a pellit of peuisshenes they had suche a stroke.

1552 R. Huloet Abcedarium Anglico Latinum Peuishnes, insania.

1592 A. Day 2nd Pt. Eng. Secretorie sig. H1, in Eng. Secretorie (rev. ed.) Were the peeuishnes of my conceiptes correspondent to those vaine glorious humors of yours.

1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. iv. xx. §29 Parents shew themselves so hard..that with their peeuishnesse [L. morositate] they doe unmeasurably wearie them.

1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar ii. §33 Some dispositions we have seen..assaulted by peevishnesse through immoderate fasting.

a1694 J. Tillotson Serm. (1743) I. iii. 101 All peevishness and incompliance of humour in things lawful and indifferent.

1741 C. Middleton Hist. Life Cicero II. vii. 6 Her husbands peevishness and churlish carriage.

1797 W. Godwin Enquirer i. x. 86 Fits of peevishness and exacerbation.

1822 J. Clare Let. 21 Feb. (1985) 232 I am sick of the..pevishness that hovers round this 14 line article in poetry.

1859 ‘G. Eliot’ Adam Bede I. i. iv. 75 Timid people always wreak their peevishness on the gentle.

1913 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 22 Feb. 13/1 Under all his grouch, his grumbling and his peevishness he had a heart as soft as a woman's.

1968 P. Larkin Let. 20 Nov. in Sel. Lett. (1992) 408 This job, despite the peevishness of some of the articles, has brought me a great deal of pleasure.

2003 SF Weekly (Calif.) (Nexis) 18 June He throws the right amount of angry-young-man peevishness into his British accent.