adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of twitchy
Explanation
Someone who's twitchy is either making quick, unintentionally jerky movements, or is visibly anxious. If you're waiting to hear if you got a part you desperately want in the school play, you may be understandably twitchy. When someone twitches, their muscles are repeatedly contracting and releasing, they are twitchy. Your body may get a little twitchy after vigorous exercise, or your eye might tend to be twitchy when you're tired. People who are agitated or jumpy are also twitchy: "This movie's too suspenseful for me — it's making me twitchy!" Twitchy is from the 12th century to-twic-chen, "to pull apart with a quick jerk," and its Old English root which means "to pluck."
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.
See Examples For:
One risk belongs in every model: High-torque actuators depend on rare-earth magnets, and China controls roughly 90% of magnet processing, a chokepoint that recent export-licensing changes have already made twitchy.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
Most objectionable may be the central character, frustrated film director Ben Braxton, played with twitchy tetchiness by Hamish Linklater.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 16, 2026
“I feel twitchy again, you know, I just feel good.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2025
Then there's the twitchy desire to maintain control over employees’ time.
From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2025
I tuck up against the armrest of Caitlin s couch, but my limbs feel twitchy and restless.
From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli
It’s always interesting because players are now — and this is not up for debate — bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic, twitchier, have more technology, more tools at their fingertips.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2020
And probably jeopardize the whole relationship during a time that most people are already running twitchier than usual.
From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2020
He’s still working with his trademark dewdrop synth melodies, but this song is twitchier and more anxious than any of his other recent work.
From The Verge ● May 6, 2016
The Servotronic steering grows progressively heavier and twitchier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2015
They favored a twitchier free-form interplay, full of jackhammered clusters and rattling cowbells, with Mr. Mitchell blowing gales through his sopranino saxophone.
From New York Times ● Jul. 8, 2015
So what does Paterno – the man behind the twitchiest stock-playing game on the internet – think should be done with Twitter?
From The Guardian ● Feb. 3, 2016
She’s as much a spoken-word act as a singer, and her tracks are some of the label’s nuttiest, twitchiest, most neck-snapping productions.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2015
But the twitchiest reaction was at Amnesty International.
From Economist ● Mar. 5, 2015
By the time United had lost two more defenders to injury in John O'Shea and his replacement Rafael da Silva, the final quarter settled down into the twitchiest of European contests.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 16, 2011
A pitcher, he soon learned, is the twitchiest of all athletes.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
