Crossword clues for squeamishness
squeamishness
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Squeamish \Squeam"ish\ (skw[=e]m"[i^]sh), a. [OE. squaimous, sweymous, probably from OE. sweem, swem, dizziness, a swimming in the head; cf. Icel. sveimr a bustle, a stir, Norw. sveim a hovering about, a sickness that comes upon one, Icel. svimi a giddiness, AS. sw[=i]ma. The word has been perhaps confused with qualmish. Cf. Swim to be dizzy.] Having a stomach that is easily turned or nauseated; hence, nice to excess in taste; fastidious; easily disgusted; apt to be offended at trifling improprieties.
Quoth he, that honor's very squeamish
That takes a basting for a blemish.
--Hudibras.
His muse is rustic, and perhaps too plain
The men of squeamish taste to entertain.
--Southern.
So ye grow squeamish, Gods, and sniff at heaven.
--M.
Arnold.
Syn: Fastidious; dainty; overnice; scrupulous. See Fastidious. [1913 Webster] -- Squeam"ish*ly, adv. -- Squeam"ish*ness, n.
Wiktionary
n. The quality of being squeamish
WordNet
n. a mild state of nausea [syn: queasiness, qualm]
Wikipedia
Squeamishness (Squeamish) typically refers to easily triggered feelings of repulsion, disgust, or physical illness often brought on by exposure to certain external stimuli.
Usage examples of "squeamishness".
Considering she had managed to conquer an initial squeamishness at the sight of blood, she felt oddly disturbed at the prospect of some wild creature dying, impaled on one of those barbless, sharpened shafts.
Call it aestheticism, squeamishness, namby-pamby sentimentalism, what you will it is stronger than oneself!
But all kinds of considerations including squeamishness, another kind of amour propre, and the thought of all the mess it would leave - combined, as always, to stay his hand.
Incidentally, that was the grokking that changed Jill's attitude from squeamishness to hearty approval: when she finally grokked in fullness that it is utterly impossible to kill a man-that all we were doing was much like a referee removing a man from a game for 'unnecessary roughness.
And if a sentimental squeamishness held one or two of them back from taking a less rosy view of Napoleon, our hospitalities tied his tongue, at least, and he said nothing at all and so did us no harm.