Definition of "peppery"

At the Stag and Antlers old Mrs. Crocket, than whom no old woman in the public line was ever more generous, more peppery, or more kind, kept two clean bedrooms, and could cook a leg of Dartmoor mutton and make an apple pie against any woman in Devonshire.

1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “The Clock House at Nuncombe Putney”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], page 113

For I'm a peppery potentate, / Who's little inclined his claim to bate, / To fit the wit of a bit of a chit, / And that's the long and short of it!

1884, Gilbert & Sullivan, Princess Ida

"If Lord John Roxton would condescend----" "My dear George, don't be so peppery," said his wife, with her hand on the black mane that drooped over the microscope.

1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton