touchiness
Easily provoked irritation
Touchiness is a tendency to take offense easily or react with irritation to minor provocations.
Someone with touchiness bristles at criticism, perceived slights, or sensitive topics: His touchiness about money made it hard to discuss the budget.
The quality suggests thin skin—an oversensitivity that makes others walk on eggshells.
Wary and restrained
- reactiveTending to respond
- oversensitiveExcessively prone to offense
- hypersensitiveExcessively reactive to stimuli
- easily offendedProne to taking umbrage
wariness · standoffish · bristling · chip on shoulder · thin-skinned · prickliness · vigilant · cautious
Short-tempered, easily provoked
- tetchyEasily provoked to irritation
- peevishHabitually fretful
- grumpyIrritable in temperament
- crankyIll-tempered and peevish
snappy · irascible · short-tempered · grouchy · snappish · cantankerous · petulant · querulous
Liability to influence
- delicacyRefined sensitivity or rarity
- fragilityEase of breaking
- vulnerabilityOpenness to harm
- rawnessUnrefined or exposed state
tenderness · soreness · emotionalism · impressionability · sentimentality · overwrought · high-strung · neurotic
Prone to sullenness
- unpredictableCannot be anticipated
- mercurialProne to sudden change
- temperamentalEasily upset, unpredictable
- volatileLiable to sudden change
capricious · changeable · erratic · tempestuous · explosive · hair-trigger · quick-tempered · fiery
guarded
Wary and restrained
- reactiveTending to respond
- oversensitiveExcessively prone to offense
- hypersensitiveExcessively reactive to stimuli
easily offended · wariness · standoffish · bristling · chip on shoulder · thin-skinned · prickliness · vigilant · cautious · hair-trigger
testy
Short-tempered, easily provoked
cranky · snappy · irascible · short-tempered · grouchy · snappish · cantankerous · petulant · querulous · choleric
susceptibility
Liability to influence
- delicacyRefined sensitivity or rarity
- fragilityEase of breaking
- vulnerabilityOpenness to harm
rawness · tenderness · soreness · emotionalism · impressionability · sentimentality · overwrought · high-strung · neurotic · thin-skinned
moody
Prone to sullenness
- unpredictableCannot be anticipated
- mercurialProne to sudden change
- temperamentalEasily upset, unpredictable
volatile · capricious · changeable · erratic · tempestuous · explosive · hair-trigger · quick-tempered · fiery · hot-headed
- grumpinessgrumpiness, crankiness, moodiness, sullenness, grouchiness
- sensitivitysensitivity, sensitive, hypersensitivity, oversensitivity, hypersensitive
- angeranger, rage, fury, wrath, ire
- annoyancesannoyance, annoyances, irritations, irritation, nuisance
- anxietiesworry, angst, nervousness, dread, apprehension
- instabilityinstability, unsteadiness, shakiness, wobbliness, precariousness
touchinesscalmness
Peaceful mental state
equanimity · composure · calm · imperturbability · placidity
touchinessimperviousness
State of being impenetrable
resilience · insensitivity · toughness · hardiness · robustness
touchinessgood humor
Cheerful, friendly temperament
good nature · affability · easygoingness · mellowness · geniality
touch, touching, touched, touchy, untouched, tangible, touches, tactile, untouchable