What's the difference between cranky and petulant?

Cranky


Definition:

  • (a.) Full of spirit; crank.
  • (a.) Addicted to crotchets and whims; unreasonable in opinions; crotchety.
  • (a.) Unsteady; easy to upset; crank.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) What better symbol of the crankiness of the current protests against economic orthodoxy could David Cameron and Nick Clegg wish for?
  • (2) ‘You sound like my old, cranky uncle.’ Yes, I am your old, cranky uncle.
  • (3) Fellow Tory minister Ken Clarke warned the Greeks of "serious consequences" if they voted for "cranky extremists ".
  • (4) (If he were Malcolm Turnbull, a certain News Corp columnist might write a cranky blog post.)
  • (5) Dr al-Zayyat has said she could not carry out a full examination because the baby was "miserable and cranky".
  • (6) The banks have been very cranky about the levy since it leaked yesterday morning.
  • (7) The justice secretary did not define what he meant by "cranky extremists".
  • (8) From Kozlova Zaseka station, a cranky old bus takes you up to Tolstoy's house.
  • (9) She read a lot of science and economics texts - "the most eccentric passage of my life" - and the resulting polemic, about the dumping of nuclear waste, attracted some cranky reviews in the science press, although she says her findings were hardly startling.
  • (10) She examined Baby P at a child development clinic at St Ann's hospital, in north London , and although she noticed bruises to his body she decided not to carry out a full examination because the child was ''cranky and miserable''.
  • (11) Tony Abbott spent yesterday looking pretty cranky, particularly when people criticised his proposal to bring back knights and dames .
  • (12) As recent touring shows of Picasso estate leftovers have demonstrated, the cranky Spaniard was prolific right up until the end of his life, producing works of varying quality.
  • (13) Reluctant to defend profits made by banks using cheap QE funds, Krugman accused his rival of being a "cranky old man" and using "context and model-free numbers embedded in a rant".
  • (14) Clarke warned: "If they get a hopeless lot of cranky extremists elected at the next election then they will default on their debt and everybody says they will leave the euro – actually that's quite likely but it doesn't necessarily follow, but they'll default on their debt."
  • (15) "If they get a hopeless lot of rather cranky extremists elected at the next election then they will default on their debt."
  • (16) Dr Sabah al-Zayyat notes bruises to his body and face but does not perform a full examination because he is "miserable and cranky".
  • (17) Greece will face a disastrous future in which it will default on its debts and may be forced to leave the euro if it votes for "cranky extremists" in next month's general election, Ken Clarke has warned.
  • (18) He thanked journalists – whom he described as a “cranky, cantankerous lot” – for rallying around and pressing for his release.
  • (19) There probably isn't enough certain scientific evidence yet (how long did it take for Richard Doll to gain a following for his cranky smoking-causes-lung-cancer theories?)
  • (20) She was “cranky” over the suggestion that the Coalition was reducing payments to patients.

Petulant


Definition:

  • (a.) Forward; pert; insolent; wanton.
  • (a.) Capriciously fretful; characterized by ill-natured freakishness; irritable.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) "This speaks volumes of Hamilton and his petulant behaviour.
  • (2) One of the stories that took hold about the Klebolds after the shooting was that they were rich, and that Dylan’s violent behaviour was an extreme version of a spoilt child’s petulance.
  • (3) If we’re going to do this groupthink [a blanket ban] I think it would smack of petulance.” Jones added: “I stand by what Tony Abbott said: it [Q&A] is a lefty lynch mob.
  • (4) For a man who can clearly dance, he tends to deliver with a petulant shrug rather than an enthusiastic bang.
  • (5) One expects tension between a government and charities that tell inconvenient truths, but this has become a notoriously fearful, petulant, and intolerant administration.
  • (6) Toby Young called her a "petulant prima donna" in the Telegraph, while Observer critic Robert McCrum wrote that, as "an ebullient and pioneering feminist publisher from the 1970s [it's] hardly a surprise that she should find herself unresponsive to Roth's lifelong subject: the adventures of the ordinary sexual [American] man".
  • (7) His latest show of petulance drew boos from a crowd largely sympathetic to his antics up to that point.
  • (8) Stuart Lancaster and his coaching team sat looking down at the floor when Owen Farrell received a yellow card 10 minutes from the end for an act of petulance that in part explained why England have failed to live up to the high standard set in the pool of death, perhaps in the hope of a sink hole opening up and taking them away.
  • (9) Croatia have won 4-0 due in no small part to the idiocy of Alexandre Song, who was sent off in the first off for a preposterous show of petulance.
  • (10) Goaded, taunted and tormented by the prosecution, Pistorius was perhaps his own worst enemy during cross-examination, suffering surprising memory lapses and appearing evasive, agitated, petulant and self-contradictory.
  • (11) With great power comes great responsibility, so Facebook , and other large technology companies like Google, Amazon and Netflix need to be watched, critiqued and regulated if necessary, just like any other corporation or petulant adolescent.
  • (12) A petulant Henry cursed wretched foreigners and launched his own Brexit by leaving the church of Rome.
  • (13) But that is not possible for as long as Assad remains in power without any timetable for his departure, and for as long as his security forces murder, torture, gas and bomb his own people.” Nigel Dodds, the deputy DUP leader, indicated he was likely to back airstrikes and issued a vicious assault on the Labour leadership, saying: “It’s the petulant, putrid response of the irresponsible revolutionary bedsit they barely seem to have clambered out of.
  • (14) Chris Bryant, the former minister for Europe and chairman of the parliamentary all-party Russia group, said in a statement: "Having visited the trial and seen for myself the farcical way in which it was being conducted, with ludicrous trumped up charges and a petulant martinet of a prosecutor, it is entirely predictable that [Khodorkovsky] has been found guilty."
  • (15) Pakistan authorities counter claim that, emboldened by countrywide instability and foreign support, Baloch feudal leaders have petulantly demanded ever more royalties.
  • (16) They see the protesters as petulant malcontents and repeat Trump’s accusation that some of them are surely getting paid to demonstrate.
  • (17) I give all my customers five stars except Nicholas, whom I give one star out of petulance at his laziness.
  • (18) She was vulnerable, touching, kindly, loving, wholly lacking in malice, occasionally petulant in a good cause, and demonstrated her lack of talent for guile whenever she entered upon some well-intentioned intrigue.
  • (19) Obama has responded with emotions rarely seen during his stoical administration: anger at “hysterical” politicians back home, sorrow at the thought of sending US troops into another Middle East war he fears would be unwinnable, and petulance in the face of those who question his resolve.
  • (20) He not only represents everything a DJ shouldn't be – obnoxious, petulant, unfunny, and so over-fond of his own horrible, squeaky voice that entire half-hours can pass without any music being played – he represents everything that's wrong with this country.