different between skittish vs unstable
skittish
English
Etymology
Probably from skite (“to move lightly and hurriedly; to move suddenly, particularly in an oblique direction (Scotland, Northern England)”) +? -ish; compare skitter.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?sk?t??/
- (T-flapping) IPA(key): [?sk????]
- Hyphenation: skit?tish
Adjective
skittish (comparative more skittish, superlative most skittish)
- Easily scared or startled; timid.
- The cat 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.
- Wanton; changeable; fickle
- c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 3,[2]
- How some men creep in skittish fortune’s hall,
- Whiles others play the idiots in her eyes!
- 1785, William Cowper, The Task, London: J. Johnson, Book 2, p. 69,[3]
- […] ’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.
- c. 1601, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act III, Scene 3,[2]
- Difficult to manage; tricky.
- 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book 2, Chapter 15,[4]
- 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.
- 1872, George Eliot, Middlemarch, Book 2, Chapter 15,[4]
Synonyms
- (easily scared or startled): spookish, jumpy, skittery, skitterish, squirrelly
Derived terms
- skittishly
- skittishness
Translations
See also
- startle
skittish From the web:
- what skittish means
- skittish what does it means
- what does skittish dog mean
- what does skittish mean
- what does skittish
- what does skittish cat mean
- what do skittish mean
- what is skittish behaviour
unstable
English
Etymology
un- +? stable
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?n?ste?b??/
- Rhymes: -e?b?l
Adjective
unstable (comparative more unstable, superlative most unstable)
- Having a strong tendency to change.
- Fluctuating; not constant.
- Fickle.
- Unpredictable.
- (chemistry) Readily decomposable.
- (physics) Radioactive, especially with a short half-life.
Synonyms
- (having strong tendency to change): labile
- (fluctuating, not constant): instable (rare); see also Thesaurus:unsteady
- (fickle): arbitrary, capricious
- (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over): tottering, unsteady, wobbly; see also Thesaurus:rickety
Antonyms
- stable
Related terms
- instability
- unstability (rare)
Translations
Verb
unstable (third-person singular simple present unstables, present participle unstabling, simple past and past participle unstabled)
- (transitive) To release (an animal) from a stable.
Anagrams
- abluents, ant-blues, bleaunts, blue ants, tunables, unablest
unstable From the web:
- what unstable element decays fast
- what unstable means
- what's unstable angina
- what unstable isotopes
- what's unstable fracture
- what unstable particle
- what unstable air mass
- what's unstable lie
Share
Tweet
+1
Share
Pin
Like
Send
Share
you may also like
- skittish vs unstable
- shout vs yowl
- dismay vs perturbation
- heartache vs despondency
- stimulate vs cause
- restrict vs preclude
- cushion vs protect
- bevy vs accumulation
- meaningful vs expressive
- degree vs crown
- strong vs lusty
- task vs trust
- tolerated vs licit
- ecstatic vs uplifted
- lingering vs deferment
- barrier vs cessation
- unethical vs shifty
- kind vs interesting
- inseparable vs set
- difference vs transfiguration