adjective

• 1(of a dog) irritable and inclined to bite.

  Synonyms

  bad-tempered, irascible, irritable, grumpy, grouchy, crotchety, tetchy, testy, crusty, curmudgeonly, ill-tempered, ill-natured, ill-humoured, peevish, cross, fractious, disagreeable, pettish, crabbed, crabby, waspish, prickly, peppery, touchy, scratchy, splenetic, shrewish, short-tempered, hot-tempered, quick-tempered, dyspeptic, choleric, bilious, liverish, cross-grained

  1. 1.1Irritable and curt.
     ‘she was often snappish with the children’
     More example sentences

     • ‘I'd noticed that in a few short hours that his curt and snappish side was back.’
     • ‘‘Shorten my name,’ I clarified in a curt, snappish tone.’
     • ‘I was snappish and rude to either of my parents if they spoke to me and I dragged my feet, glaring down at the linoleum floor beneath my scorched sneakers, which had somehow managed to be salvaged.’
     • ‘She'd been rude and snappish, but Seth had a couple of times glimpsed a softer side, he'd thought.’
     • ‘The excess energy from quitting smoking has apparently slipped away and I'm in that dangerous stage in the battle where I'm crabby and snappish.’
     Synonyms

     terse, brusque, abrupt, clipped, blunt, short, monosyllabic, summary, snappy, snappish, sharp, crisp, tart