skittish
Americanadjective
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apt to start or shy.
a skittish horse.
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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.
Banks may be damned by skittish investors if they do engage with private credit, and damned if they don’t.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026
"Markets can look skittish or confused, but what they're really doing is managing event risk in real time, with oil sitting right at the centre of that."
From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026
One concern for SAP is that would-be customers have become a little more skittish in an uncertain geopolitical environment.
From Barron's • Jan. 29, 2026
Everyone feels a little stressed, a little skittish, a little tender to the touch.
From Salon • Jan. 19, 2026
As is, she is shy and skittish, possibly because she never leaves the hive, but spends her days confined in darkness, a kind of eternal night, perpetually in labor.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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.
