restive

Etymology

Modification of earlier restiff, from Old French restif, from rester (“stay, remain”), from Latin restō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛstɪv/
• Hyphenation: res‧tive

Adjective

restive (comparative more restive, superlative most restive)

1. Impatient under delay, duress, or control.
   • 1914, Bram Stoker, "Dracula's Guest" in Dracula's Guest and Other Weird Stories:

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

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “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 to control; stubborn.
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], chapter VIII, in Gulliver’s Travels, volume II, London: Printed for Benj[amin] Motte, OCLC 995220039, part IV, page 274:

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

3. Refusing to move, especially in a forward direction.

Anagrams

• Ivester, Servite, Sievert, sievert, tervies, veriest