The disposition to offer active resistance to control by any means whatever is what is commonly indicated by restive in the best English speech and literature.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

restless The longer we stayed, the more restless we became.
uneasy Tom felt uneasy talking to Mary about that matter.
fidgety The baby is fidgety because it has wind.
rebellious Among the people, rebellious sentiments are growing.
unruly The police managed to corral the unruly crowd.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
restive		steady
restless		rising
uneasy		rising
fidgety		rising
fretful		rising
rebellious		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters: edgy²
5 letters: tense¹, jumpy², nervy², balky²
6 letters: uneasy³, unruly³, dogged¹, sullen², mulish
7 letters: anxious², wayward², jittery³, fidgety, unquiet, fretful², restiff
8 letters: stubborn², restless², perverse², skittish²
9 letters: resentful³, obstinate³, fractious²
10 letters: rebellious³, refractory⁴, headstrong², overstrung
11 letters: intractable⁴, disobedient⁵
12 letters: unmanageable⁵, recalcitrant⁴, ungovernable⁵, obstreperous⁴, contumacious, pertinacious
13 letters: uncooperative⁶

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (edgy² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: rétif
Italiano: recalcitrante
Deutsch: störrisch
Català: repropi