Restive

Full definition of restive

Adjective

1. Impatient under delay, duress, or control.
• 1914, Bram Stoker, "Dracula's Guest" in :The horses were now more restive than ever, and Johann was trying to hold them in.
• Wodehouse Offing|XV|“Hullo, Bobbie,” I said. “Hullo, Bertie,” she said. “Hullo, Upjohn,” I said. The correct response to this would have been “Hullo, Wooster”, but he blew up in his lines and merely made a noise like a wolf with its big toe caught in a trap. Seemed a bit restive, I thought, as if wishing he were elsewhere. Bobbie was all girlish animation. “I've been telling Mr Upjohn about that big fish we saw in the lake yesterday, Bertie.” “Ah yes, the big fish.” “It was a whopper, wasn't it?” “Very well-developed.” “I brought him down here to show it to him.” “Quite right. You'll enjoy the big fish, Upjohn.” I had been perfectly correct in supposing him to be restive. He did his wolf impersonation once more. “I shall do nothing of the sort,” he said, and you couldn't find a better word than “testily” to describe the way he spoke. “It is most inconvenient for me to be away from the house at this time. I am expecting a telephone call from my lawyer.”
2. Resistant of control; stubborn.
• Swift Gulliver|IV|VIIIYet I am of opinion, this defect arises chiefly from a perverse, restive disposition; for they are cunning, malicious, treacherous, and revengeful.
3. Refusing to move, especially in a forward direction.

Synonyms

• (impatient under duress) anxious, champing at the bit, fidgety, restless, uneasy
• (resistant of control) disobedient, rebellious, recalcitrant, refractory, uncooperative, unruly
• (refusing to move) balky

Derived terms

• restively
• restiveness

Anagrams

• sievert
• veriest