disapproval If you describe someone as fractious, you disapprove of them because they become upset or angry very quickly about small unimportant things. Nancy was in a fractious mood The children were predictably fractious. someone who is fractious becomes angry very easily = irritable (fraction (16-18 centuries))
unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be troublesome; "rockets were much too fractious to be tested near thigkly populated areas"; "fractious components of a communication system"