Wiktionary

skittish

English

edit

Etymology

edit

Probably from skite (“to move lightly and hurriedly; to move suddenly, particularly in an oblique direction (Scotland, Northern England)”) +‎ -ish; compare skitter.

Pronunciation

edit
  • IPA(key): /ˈskɪtɪʃ/
  • (T-flapping) IPA(key): [ˈskɪɾɪʃ]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪtɪʃ
  • Hyphenation: skit‧tish

Adjective

edit

skittish (comparative more skittish, superlative most skittish)

  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,[1]
      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.
  3. Difficult to manage; tricky.
    • 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 15, in Middlemarch […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):
      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.

Synonyms

edit

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

See also

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=skittish&oldid=79797525"