Pet"u*lance (?), Pet"u*lan*cy (?), n. [L. petulania: cf. F. p'etulance. See Petulant.]
The quality or state of being petulant; temporary peevishness; pettishness; capricious ill humor.
"The
petulancy of our words."
B. Jonson.
Like pride in some, and like petulance in others.
Clarendon.
The lowering eye, the petulance, the frown.
Cowper.
Syn. -- Petulance, Peevishness. -- Peevishness implies the permanence of a sour, fretful temper; petulance implies temporary or capricious irritation.
© Webster 1913.