Thesaurus
skittish
adjective
Synonyms and Antonyms of 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, skittish, spasmodic, spooky
Related 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, touchy
2
easily frightened <the cat is skittish around people she doesn't know>
Synonyms fainthearted, fearful, fearsome, mousy (or mousey), scary, skittish, timid, timorous, tremulous
Related 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, unnerved
Near 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, spunky
Antonyms 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, skittish, temperamental, uncertain, unpredictable, unsettled, unstable, unsteady, variable, volatile
Related 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, versatile
Near Antonyms equable, even, uniform; abiding, durable, lasting, permanent, persistent; dependable, reliable, sure, tried, tried-and-true, true, trustworthy, trusty
Antonyms certain, changeless, constant, immutable, invariable, predictable, settled, stable, stationary, steady, unchangeable, unchanging, unvarying
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