First Known Use: 1896
Dictionary
feisty
adjective \ˈfī-stē\
: not afraid to fight or argue : very lively and aggressive
feist·i·erfeist·i·est
Full Definition of FEISTY
1
chiefly Southern & Midland a : full of nervous energy : fidgety b : touchy, quarrelsome c : exuberantly frisky
2
: having or showing a lively aggressiveness : spunky <the movie's feisty heroine>
— feist·i·ness noun
See feisty defined for English-language learners
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Examples of FEISTY
- I was —feisty, because people misinterpret what country music is, just like they think Southerners are a bunch of hicks. —Wynonna Judd, quoted in Rolling Stone, 8-22 July 1993
- Humorist Cynthia Heimel never plays it safe, bless her feisty little heart. She's outrageous and hilarious, daring to say exactly what she and millions of other women really think … —Donna Seaman, Booklist, 15 May 1993
- … Milwaukee was the last major industrial city to elect a Socialist mayor—Frank P. Zeidler, a feisty octogenarian who teaches today at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee … —Charles P. Pierce, Village Voice, 10 Mar. 1992
- She never tired of hearing anecdotes from her childhood, and she particularly liked to hear how feisty she had been … —Lorene Cary, Black Ice, 1991
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Origin of FEISTY
(see feist)
Related to FEISTY
- Synonyms
- aggressive, agonistic, argumentative, assaultive, bellicose, brawly, chippy, combative, confrontational, contentious, discordant, disputatious, belligerent, gladiatorial, militant, pugnacious, quarrelsome, scrappy, truculent, warlike
- Antonyms
- nonaggressive, nonbelligerent, pacific, peaceable, peaceful, unbelligerent, uncombative, uncontentious
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