Skittish

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Skittish \Skit"tish\, a. [See {Skit}, v. t.]
     1. Easily frightened; timorous; shy; untrustworthy; as, a
        skittish colt. "A restiff, skittish jade." --L'Estrange.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Wanton; restive; freakish; volatile; changeable; fickle.


        "Skittish Fortune's hall." --Shak.
        [1913 Webster] -- {Skit"tish*ly}, adv. --
        {Skit"tish*ness}, n.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  skittish
       adj : unpredictably excitable (especially of horses) [syn: {spooky},
              {nervous}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  128 Moby Thesaurus words for "skittish":
     agitable, allergic, anaphylactic, animated, antic, bashful,
     capersome, changeable, coltish, combustible, confused, conscious,
     coquettish, cowardly, coy, delicate, demure, diffident, dizzy,
     edgy, emotional, emotionally unstable, empathetic, empathic,
     empty-headed, eruptive, excitable, explosive, exuberant, faddish,
     fearful, fearing, fearsome, fickle, flighty, flirtatious, frisky,
     frivolous, frolicsome, full of beans, gamesome, gay, giddy, goosy,
     harebrained, hearty, high-mettled, high-spirited, high-strung,
     highly emotional, hyperesthetic, hyperpathic, hypersensitive,
     in fear, inarticulate, inconstant, inflammable, irascible,
     irresponsible, irritable, itchy, jumpy, light, light-headed,
     lively, mercurial, mettlesome, mousy, nervous, overrefined,
     oversensible, oversensitive, overtender, passible, perturbable,
     playful, prickly, quicksilver, rabbity, rattlebrained, refined,
     responsive, restive, rollicking, rollicksome, rompish, scary,
     scatterbrained, self-conscious, sensitive, shaky, shamefaced,
     shamefast, shivery, shrinking, shy, skittery, spirited, sportive,
     sprightly, stammering, startlish, supersensitive, sympathetic,
     tactful, tender, tetchy, thin-skinned, ticklish, timid, timorous,
     touchy, toying, trembling, tremulous, trepidant, trigger-happy,
     undependable, unpredictable, unreliable, vacillating, versatile,
     vital, vivacious, volatile, volcanic, zestful, zippy