(UK, dialect) argumentative.
He hadn't hardly got over his illness and he was fratchety, like, as sick people will be.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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(UK, informal) Irritable or argumentative.
(UK, Yorkshire) To argue, to quarrel; to fight.
(UK) A dispute, a quarrel; a fight or brawl.
A distinctly British informal adjective for someone who's irritable, tetchy, and ready to argue at the drop of a hat. A fratchy person wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and seems to stay there all day — they snap, they bicker, they find fault with everything. It's a perfectly descriptive word that somehow sounds exactly like the mood it describes. Often used affectionately or with exasperation when talking about a grumpy partner, tired child, or a colleague who hasn't had their coffee yet.