skittish
adj/ˈskɪtɪʃ/ · [ˈskɪɾɪʃ]
Etymology Probably from skite (“to move lightly and hurriedly; to move suddenly, particularly in an oblique direction (Scotland, Northern England)”) + -ish; compare skitter.
1
Easily scared or startled; timid.
- The dog likes people he knows, but he is skittish around strangers.
- 1557, Roger Edgeworth, Sermons Very Fruitfull, Godly, and Learned, London: Robert Caly, The fiftenth treatice or Sermon, All such be like a skittish starting horse, whiche coming ouer a bridge, wil start for a shadowe, or for a stone lying by him, and leapeth ouer on the other side into the water, & drowneth both horse and man.
2
Wanton; changeable; fickle.
- How some men creep in skittish fortune’s hall, Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes!c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
- […] ’Tis pitiful To court a grin, when you should wooe a soul; To break a jest, when pity would inspire Pathetic exhortation; and t’ address The skittish fancy with facetious tales, When sent with God’s commission to the heart.1785, William Cowper, “Book II. The Time-piece.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 69:
3
Difficult to manage; tricky.
- For everybody’s family doctor was remarkably clever, and was understood to have immeasurable skill in the management and training of the most skittish or vicious diseases.1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 15, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):
- Synonyms
- spookish, jumpy, skittery, skitterish, squirrelly
- Derived terms
- skittishly, skittishness, unskittish
- Related terms
- startle