squeamish

American  

[skwee-mish] / ˈskwi mɪʃ /

adjective

1. fastidious or dainty.

   Synonyms:

   modest

   Antonyms:

   bold

2. easily shocked by anything slightly immodest; prudish.

   Antonyms:

   bold

3. excessively particular or scrupulous as to the moral aspect of things.

   Synonyms:

   exacting, delicate, finicky, finical

   Antonyms:

   bold

4. easily nauseated or disgusted.

   to get squeamish at the sight of blood.

---

squeamish British  

/ ˈskwiːmɪʃ /

adjective

1. easily sickened or nauseated, as by the sight of blood

2. easily shocked; fastidious or prudish

3. easily frightened

   squeamish about spiders

---

Other Word Forms

• oversqueamish
  adjective
• oversqueamishly
  adverb
• oversqueamishness
  noun
• squeamishly
  adverb
• squeamishness
  noun
• unsqueamish
  adjective
• unsqueamishly
  adverb
• unsqueamishness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of squeamish

First recorded in 1450–1500; late Middle English squaymysch, squaimish(e), alteration of squemes, squaymes, squaimous, squaymous “easily nauseated, nauseating, fastidious,” from Anglo-French escoimus, escoymous; further origin uncertain

Explanation

If you fainted or threw up at the sight of frog intestines in biology class, you’re squeamish — easily nauseated or shocked by unpleasant, icky things. No horror movies for you! We get squeamish from the Anglo-French word escoimous, meaning disdainful or shy. It can mean shy of blood or gore, or less often, it is used to describe a prissy kind of fear of confrontation with others. How can you become a heart surgeon if you’re squeamish enough to faint every time you get a paper cut? If you’re squeamish about confronting the noisy neighbors, why not slip a note under their door asking them to pipe down?

Example Sentences

Squeamish readers may blanch at the amount of blood-flecked sputum the tubercular Chopin coughs up on the page, and at the procession of doctors with their leeches and milk diets.

From New York Times • Nov. 19, 2018

Squeamish persons felt as if they had opened the wrong door.

From Time Magazine Archive

Squeamish diners have long made spoon polishing a nervous ritual, and almost everywhere a dirty caf� is called a "greasy spoon."

From Time Magazine Archive

Squeamish, skwēm′ish, adj. sickish at stomach: easily disgusted or offended: fastidious in taste.—adv.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

Squeamish folk, perhaps, may think that this is not the most opportune time at which to draw attention to the blood-lust that was so marked a feature of the French Revolution.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, April 4, 1917 by Various

Related Words

• dizzy
• fastidious
• fussy
• queasy