nervous
Adjective Satellite
- easily agitated
- "a nervous addict"
- "a nervous thoroughbred"
- causing or fraught with or showing anxiety
- "those nervous moments before takeoff"
- excited in anticipation
- unpredictably excitable (especially of horses)
Adjective
- Easily excited or agitated; apprehensive or timid.
- of or relating to the nervous system
- "nervous disease"
Adj
- Of sinews and tendons.
- Full of sinews.
- Of sinews and tendons.
- Having strong or prominent sinews; sinewy, muscular.
- Of sinews and tendons.
- Of a piece of writing, literary style etc.: forceful, powerful.
- Of nerves.
- Supplied with nerves; innervated.
- Of nerves.
- Affecting or involving the nerves or nervous system.
- Of nerves.
- Nervose.
- Of nerves.
- Easily agitated or alarmed; edgy, on edge.
- Of nerves.
- Apprehensive, anxious, hesitant, worried.
Examples
- Being in a crowd of strangers makes me nervous.
- His opponent became nervous as the Words With Friends game neared its thrilling conclusion.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English nervous (“composed of or incorporating nerves”), from Latin nervōsus (“nervous; sinewy; energetic, vigorous”), from nervus (“nerve; muscle; sinew, tendon; (figuratively) energy, power; nerve; force, strength, vigour”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *snéh₁wr̥ (“sinew, tendon”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns). The English word is analysable as nerve + -ous.
Synonyms
aflutter, anxious, flighty, neural, queasy, skittish, spooky, uneasy, unquiet, angstful, apprehensive, careful, concerned, distraught, disturbed, edgy, excitable, fraught, freaked out, hagridden, high-strung, hypersensitive, jittery, jumpy, leery, nervous, nervy, on edge, perturbable, restless, spookish, squeamish, tied in knots, twitchy, verklempt, worried, worrisome, worryful
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 10
nervous: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordnervous: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
nervous: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary