skittish

1 easily excited by nature the skittish colt leapt up when we approached Synonyms of skittish fiddle-footed, flighty, fluttery, high-strung, hyper, hyperactive, hyperexcitable, hyperkinetic, jittery, jumpy, nervous, skittery, excitable, spasmodic, spookyWords Related to skittish 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 of skittish calm, collected, cool, serene, tranquil; easy, easygoing, laid-back, relaxedAntonyms of skittish imperturbable, nerveless, unexcitable, unflappable, unshakable

2 easily frightened the cat is skittish around people she doesn't know Synonyms of skittish fainthearted, fearful, fearsome, mousy (or mousey), scary, shy, timid, timorous, tremulousWords Related to skittish 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 of skittish 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 of skittish 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 of skittish capricious, changeable, changeful, flickery, fluctuating, fluid, inconsistent, inconstant, mercurial, mutable, fickle, temperamental, uncertain, unpredictable, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatileWords Related to skittish 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 of skittish equable, even, uniform; abiding, durable, lasting, permanent, persistent; dependable, reliable, sure, tried, tried-and-true, true, trustworthy, trustyAntonyms of skittish certain, changeless, constant, immutable, invariable, predictable, settled, stable, stationary, steady, unchangeable, unchanging, unvarying