1500-1600Old Frenchrestif ‘refusing to move’, from rester; ➔ REST1
Examples
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
The southern region was growing increasingly restive.
EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
Another person joined the queue and the old lady immediately behind him began to look restive.
Her restive fingers toyed with the battered keys.
If his wife is restive, he sees welfare as a positive invitation from the state for her to dissolve the marriage.
In the driving mirror I saw the driver of the estate-car was growing restive.
Similar appeals to restive Protestant gunmen came Thursday from civic and church leaders and government officials.
The men from Foss were restive.
dissatisfied or bored with your situation, and impatient for it to change: Communist leaders struggled to rule over increasingly restive populations.—restively adverb—restiveness noun [uncountable]