adjective
-
nervous or apprehensive
-
moving jerkily or fitfully
Other Word Forms
- jumpily adverb
- jumpiness noun
Etymology
Origin of jumpy
Explanation
Someone who's jumpy is anxious and jittery. If you've ever been so nervous that you couldn't sit still, you know how it feels to be jumpy. This informal adjective is perfect for describing the sort of anxiety you can't hide. If you're shifting in your seat, crossing and uncrossing your legs, and nervously tapping your fingers on your knees as you wait to give a speech, you're jumpy. Jumpy also means "bumpy," as when you take a jumpy bike ride along a rocky, unpaved road.
Vocabulary lists containing jumpy
Long Way Down
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Elijah of Buxton
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The Night Diary
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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.
“The market is very, very jumpy when it comes to the risks to foreign demand” for Treasurys, said Thomas Simons, a money-market economist for Jefferies in New York.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 30, 2026
As rates retreated from recent highs, investors have gotten jumpy at reports of troubled corporate borrowers.
From Barron's • Mar. 25, 2026
It doesn’t take much to cause tumultuous stock moves in a market top-heavy with tech shares and jumpy about the prospects for artificial intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 23, 2026
"Both the US and Taiwan are paranoid and jumpy about Palau switching," said Graeme Smith, a senior fellow at the Australian National University.
From BBC • Nov. 23, 2025
In any case, Harry didn’t like the idea of the whole Weasley family knowing that he, Harry, was getting jumpy about a few moments’ pain.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
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.
