skittish
Use Skittish in a sentence
ɪʃ adjective
1.
apt to start or shy: a skittish horse.
2.
restlessly or excessively lively: a skittish mood.
3.
fickle; uncertain.
4.
shy; coy.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To skittish
00:10
Skittish
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
Collins
World English Dictionary
skittish (ˈskɪtɪʃ) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj | |
| 1. | playful, lively, or frivolous |
| 2. | difficult to handle or predict |
| 3. | rare coy |
| [C15: probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse skjōta to | |
| 'skittishly | |
| —adv | |
| 'skittishness | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History
skittish
c.1412, "very lively, frivolous," perhaps from Scand. base *skyt- (stem of O.N. skjuta "to shoot"), from PIE base *skeud- "to shoot, to chase, to throw, to project" (see shoot (v.)). Sense of "apt to run" first recorded about 1510, of horses.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
It was a period when media lawyers and company executives were understandably skittish.
However, these markets are shallow and skittish today.
She stopped when she was about eight feet from our perch, eyeing us sideways, curious but also skittish.
Coyotes usually display skittish behavior around humans, unless they are being fed somehow.
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