skittish

1 easily excited by nature the skittish colt leapt up when we approached Synonyms fiddle-footed, flighty, fluttery, high-strung, hyper, hyperactive, hyperexcitable, hyperkinetic, jittery, jumpy, nervous, skittery, excitable, spasmodic, spookyRelated Words hot-blooded, mercurial, temperamental, unstable, volatile, volcanic; anxious, edgy, flibbertigibbety, nervy, tense, uptight; emotional, emotionalistic, hypersensitive, intense, sensitive, soulful; dramatic, histrionic, melodramatic; irascible, irritable, perturbable, prickly, testy, touchyNear Antonyms calm, collected, cool, serene, tranquil; easy, easygoing, laid-back, relaxedAntonyms imperturbable, nerveless, unexcitable, unflappable, unshakable

2 easily frightened the cat is skittish around people she doesn't know Synonyms fainthearted, fearful, fearsome, mousy (or mousey), scary, shy, timid, timorous, tremulousRelated Words chicken, chickenhearted, chicken-livered, cowardly, craven, dastardly, gutless, lily-livered, milk-livered [archaic], poltroon, pusillanimous, spineless, unheroic, yellow; jittery, jumpy, spooky; anxious, apprehensive, nervous; afraid, alarmed, horrified, panicked, panicky, panic-stricken, scared, shocked, spooked, startled, terrified, terrorized, unnervedNear Antonyms brave, courageous, dauntless, doughty, fearless, gallant, greathearted, heroic (also heroical), intrepid, lionhearted, stalwart, stout, stouthearted, undaunted, valiant, valorous; assured, confident, self-assured, self-confident; determined, firm, game, plucky, resolute, undeterred, unflinching, unswerving; mettlesome, spirited, spunkyAntonyms adventuresome, adventurous, audacious, bold, daring, dashing, gutsy, hardy, venturesome, venturous

3 likely to change frequently, suddenly, or unexpectedly a skittish housing market had both buyers and sellers on edge Synonyms capricious, changeable, changeful, flickery, fluctuating, fluid, inconsistent, inconstant, mercurial, mutable, fickle, temperamental, uncertain, unpredictable, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatileRelated Words aimless, arbitrary, desultory, erratic, haphazard, hit-or-miss, irregular, random, scattered, slapdash, stray; ambivalent, hesitating, shaky, shilly-shally, shilly-shallying, vacillating, wavering; dicey, undependable, unreliable, untrustworthy; adaptable, mobile, protean, versatileNear Antonyms equable, even, uniform; abiding, durable, lasting, permanent, persistent; dependable, reliable, sure, tried, tried-and-true, true, trustworthy, trustyAntonyms certain, changeless, constant, immutable, invariable, predictable, settled, stable, stationary, steady, unchangeable, unchanging, unvarying