What does "petulancy" mean?

Petulancy: 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. -- Peevishness implies the permanence of a sour, fretful temper; petulance implies temporary or capricious irritation.