hypersensitive
Americanadjective
-
excessively sensitive.
to be hypersensitive to criticism.
-
allergic to a substance to which persons do not normally react.
adjective
-
having unduly vulnerable feelings
-
abnormally sensitive to an allergen, a drug, or other agent
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hypersensitive
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.
Psychologist Justin Barrett of the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology gave a name to the root of this tendency: Humans, he said, have a Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device.
From Slate • Jul. 23, 2015
Hypersensitive Painter Wood scarcely bothered to refute the rumors.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hypersensitive about venturing into the unreal daily world, she finally would not address her many letters, had her sister do it for her, or else pasted printed addresses on the envelopes.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hypersensitive U.N. diplomats also resent her absence from the U.N. party circuit, but she pleads too little time "to go schmoozing around the halls."
From Time Magazine Archive
Hypersensitive from her convent upbringing she knew intuitively when he entered a room or left it.
From The Shadow of the East by Hull, E. M. (Edith Maude)
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.
