antsy
Americanadjective
-
unable to sit or stand still; fidgety.
The children were bored and antsy.
-
apprehensive, uneasy, or nervous.
I'm a little antsy since hearing those storm warnings.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of antsy
Explanation
If you're antsy, you're restless and fidgety. It's hard not to be antsy when you're waiting to learn whether or not you've been accepted to your first choice of colleges. An antsy kid, unable to sit still, might need to use the bathroom, and a worried parent is often antsy while she waits for her teenager to come home late at night. Antsy came first, in the 1830s, but the idea is similar to the 20th century expression "have ants in your pants." Imagine how you'd squirm if you actually did feel ants crawling around in your pants: figuratively, that's how it feels to be antsy.
Vocabulary lists containing antsy
Look Both Ways
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Popcorn
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Mississippi Trial, 1955
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After 28 years of watching World Cups from football's wilderness, there was never much danger of the Tartan Army getting antsy about the gridlock on the road to Foxborough.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
Americans don’t like fraud—they want action to clean it up—though they get antsy at the thought of denied aid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 26, 2026
Major reactions to relatively minor events show that shareholders are getting antsy as AI investment grows with little measurable return behind it.
From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2025
Normally, when Robby’s had her fair share of like showing me YouTube clips or Reels, then I’ll start to get antsy.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2025
Ifemelu was resdess, antsy; every day she listened to the news, hoping to hear that the strike was over.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
But Scherzer is different — antsier, too consumed with all this to sit still even if he has fielded those bunts a thousand times.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 6, 2022
But as night fell, the crowd grew larger and antsier.
From Seattle Times ● May 18, 2022
Have the regulators gotten antsier in your view?
From The Verge ● Aug. 17, 2021
Ron is antsier, along for the ride and game to learn the rules but also a bit of a bumbler.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2016
His next restaurant is called Next, and it sprang from the antsier impulses of a chef who gets bored easily.
From Chicago Tribune ● Feb. 15, 2011
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
