What's the difference between impertinent and petulant?

Impertinent


Definition:

  • (a.) Not pertinent; not pertaining to the matter in hand; having no bearing on the subject; not to the point; irrelevant; inapplicable.
  • (a.) Contrary to, or offending against, the rules of propriety or good breeding; guilty of, or prone to, rude, unbecoming, or uncivil words or actions; as, an impertient coxcomb; an impertient remark.
  • (a.) Trifing; inattentive; frivolous.
  • (n.) An impertinent person.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) I could stick my nose into everyone else's business and ask all the impertinent questions I wanted to.
  • (2) That is an impertinent question,” Abbott said when asked by a journalist whether he had been drunk.
  • (3) Linda Tirado, writer on poverty: ‘My instinct is to set off around the country asking impertinent questions’ Facebook Twitter Pinterest Linda Tirado photographed in Washington, DC: ‘At least I have fertile land and a defensible perimeter.’ Photograph: Scott Suchman for the Observer I live in the heart of Trump country, in Meigs County, Ohio, a rural county struggling with poverty and addiction.
  • (4) When I awoke today on LA time my phone was full of impertinent digital eulogies.
  • (5) After I rebuked him for his impertinence in waiting in the wrong place, thereby delaying me for at least 12 seconds, he lead me out to his highly polished black Cadillac sedan.
  • (6) "British values" has unfortunately often ended up sounding like an impertinent appropriation of universal human values such as fairness, tolerance and the like.
  • (7) When the young atheists asked why they should submit to this impertinent demand, the hacks replied that the T-shirts were "of course, offensive".
  • (8) From Proust to Ellen DeGeneres, 10 gay works that changed the world Read more Of course, by highlighting the sexualities of these writers, I’m engaging in much the same impertinence.
  • (9) It emerged on Tuesday that Dershowitz has moved to formally strike the “outrageous and impertinent” allegations against him contained in the same Florida court motion naming the prince, which accuses the Harvard lawyer of having sexual relations with a minor in private planes and properties owned by Epstein.
  • (10) Though not so much as to accept the impertinent offer of marriage from Mr Guppy, for – if it is not too much to hope – I rather think that in 500 pages or so I may be betrothed to the handsome and warm-hearted Dr Woodcourt who gave me some reason for encouragement before leaving the narrative after being nice to Young Jo.
  • (11) Brendon Sewill, author of a history of Gatwick, Tangled Wings, and chair of the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign, said it was "impertinent" of Wingate to suggest that opposition had died away.
  • (12) Men make deliberately negative remarks to young women – impertinent comments about their clothes or hair – expecting to pique their interest and undermine their confidence at the same time.
  • (13) At a time when voting was extended to more working men, its newly enfranchised visitors could rant at a disliked politician or stare impertinently into the eyes of royalty.
  • (14) You suspected, too, that Frank Farina, the coach, had addressed them on the impertinence of Eriksson's scheme for this game.
  • (15) As a good Indian boy brought up to respect elders, such intergenerational impertinence doesn't come readily.
  • (16) By Tuesday he had launched a legal bid to formally strike the “outrageous and impertinent” claims about him containing in court filing, promised imminent defamation proceedings against Roberts and her lawyers, in both US and English courts, and submitted a sworn affidavit denying the accusations.
  • (17) Dear Mahvash Sabet, It’s almost an impertinence, I feel, to write to a poet who is being kept behind bars for her words and beliefs.
  • (18) None of the Oxford academics had such preposterous questions and his impertinence was treated was patronising disdain.
  • (19) He said the “factual details regarding with whom and where” she had sex were “immaterial and impertinent” to her argument that she should be allowed to join the lawsuit.
  • (20) "It is not meant to be anti-Sarkozy, but to be impertinent.

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.