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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Skittishness

Skittish \Skit"tish\, a. [See Skit, v. t.]

  1. Easily frightened; timorous; shy; untrustworthy; as, a skittish colt. ``A restiff, skittish jade.''
    --L'Estrange.

  2. Wanton; restive; freakish; volatile; changeable; fickle. ``Skittish Fortune's hall.''
    --Shak. [1913 Webster] -- Skit"tish*ly, adv. -- Skit"tish*ness, n.

Wiktionary
skittishness

n. The property of being skittish.

WordNet
skittishness

n. characterized by nervousness and quickness to take fright [syn: restiveness]

Usage examples of "skittishness".

Key stocks were being dumped across the board as investor uncertainty over the future of the American economy fueled a skittishness that had not completely abated since Dark Friday.

Zap 210, on her part, treated Reith with suspicion, as if begrudging even the intimacy of conversation: a skittishness and prim reserve peculiar in a person who, to the best of his knowledge, had not even a distorted understanding of ordinary sexual processes.

Two more of them were getting acquainted with two magnificent riding horses, who seemed to be getting over their initial skittishness.