skittish
Americanadjective
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apt to start or shy.
a skittish horse.
-
restlessly or excessively lively.
a skittish mood.
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fickle; uncertain.
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shy; coy.
adjective
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playful, lively, or frivolous
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difficult to handle or predict
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rare coy
Other Word Forms
- skittishly adverb
- skittishness noun
Etymology
Origin of skittish
1375–1425; late Middle English, perhaps derivative of the Scand source of skite 1; -ish 1
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.
One concern for SAP is that would-be customers have become a little more skittish in an uncertain geopolitical environment.
From Barron's
Everyone feels a little stressed, a little skittish, a little tender to the touch.
From Salon
Tech firms’ ambitious plans for blowout spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure had already been making some investors skittish over the past couple of months.
Airlines lost booking momentum when some customers turned skittish and made other plans ahead of Thanksgiving holiday as the shutdown ground on.
From MarketWatch
The younger versions of Noah and Allie, callow and skittish, are laid out in broad strokes.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
