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free-floating anxiety

British  

noun

  1. psychiatry chronic anxiety occurring for no identifiable cause

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

Outfitted by costume designer Jane Greenwood in a mother-of-the-bride dress so redolent of springtime it might have to be mulched, Parker bounces around the room, filling it with free-floating anxiety.

From Washington Post • Mar. 29, 2022

This might sound like a great deal of homework for a fear you’re hoping will just go away, but I believe specificity and planning make great antidotes to free-floating anxiety.

From Slate • Jan. 28, 2021

Some of her jokes are brutal, some are outrageous, but she has a particular gift for frothing neurosis – loneliness, low self-worth, free-floating anxiety – into extravagant laughs.

From The Guardian • Sep. 18, 2019

That is a free-floating anxiety that people try to channel into owning guns, or whatever.

From Salon • Jan. 3, 2016

“There was always the free-floating anxiety that things could get out of hand.”

From The New Yorker • May 4, 2015