Meaning

Impatient under delay, duress, or control..

Definitions by Sense

1. Impatient under delay, duress, or control.
2. Resistant to control; stubborn.
3. Refusing to move, especially in a forward direction.

Example Sentences

The horses were now more restive than ever, and Johann was trying to hold them in.

[...] news of their defeat had spread across the countryside and made the animals on the neighbouring farms more restive than ever.

“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.”

But a restive class of Google executives worry that the company is showing cracks.

It’s clear that at least some shareholders had become restive about Zuckerberg’s pursuit of a fatuous virtual-reality fantasy, […]

Yet I am of Opinion, this Defect ariſeth chiefly from a perverſe, reſtive Diſpoſition. For they are cunning, malicious, treacherous and revengeful.

Word Forms

• more restive
• most restive

Synonyms for restive

Related Words

When Should You Use Restive?

Use restive when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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