How to Use skittish in a Sentence

skittish

adjective

• We've been skittish about taking on such a large mortgage.
• Tall rows of corn held the more skittish whitetails, while the mule deer stood out in the open.
  — Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 1 Nov. 2023
• Hope is still skittish these days, slipping in and out of the back door.
  — Susanna Schrobsdorff, Time, 28 Feb. 2021
• Of course, this isn’t the first time buyers have been skittish.
  — Curbed, 1 Sep. 2022
• But across the rest of the Northeast, some buyers are a bit more skittish.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 31 Oct. 2021
• This sweet story will soothe skittish kids and give them tools to feel calm and safer in the night.
  — Wendy Dunn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 31 Jan. 2024
• These skittish young sharks stick close to shore to avoid predators and snack on stingrays and fish.
  — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Nov. 2020
• Keep your dog close to the end of the strip, to avoid out-of-range flushes from skittish birds that were running ahead.
  — Outdoor Life, 18 Oct. 2023
• This week, the tech and banking sector are growing skittish about the next shoe to drop.
  — David Goldman, CNN, 12 Mar. 2023
• Most guests seem so glad to get out from the quarantine life, but a few seem skittish.
  — Beth Thames | [e-mail], al, 7 July 2021
• Tua Tagovailoa was under a heavy rush, and looked skittish in the face of it.
  — Kenny Rosarion, sun-sentinel.com, 22 Nov. 2020
• The buck showed up at a corn feeder about 30 yards away, but the young hunter could tell it was acting skittish.
  — Matt Williams, Dallas News, 29 Jan. 2021
• That may appeal to cats that are too large or too skittish in a closed design.
  — Condé Nast, WIRED, 9 Jan. 2024
• Here, the story is based in more skittish black bourgeois art-world elitism.
  — Armond White, National Review, 1 Sep. 2021
• At first, the miners are skittish about strangers from London.
  — Micah L. Sifry, The New Republic, 15 Jan. 2020
• For those who like to micro-fish for tiny, skittish species in creeks and ponds, the fish list totals have a chance to jump way up there.
  — Jim Gronaw, Baltimore Sun, 18 Sep. 2022
• Why are bond investors getting skittish about the U.K.?
  — Quentin Webb, WSJ, 7 Oct. 2022
• His hands flutter, flitting up and down the keyboard like skittish moths.
  — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 9 Apr. 2022
• For those of us who are even skittish on a stepladder, concern was there from the start of this portrait of an alpinist as a young man.
  — Lisa Kennedy, Variety, 10 Sep. 2021
• While shy and skittish at first, Nebelungs are quick to warm up to family members and love playtime.
  — Corinne Sullivan, Woman's Day, 6 Sep. 2022
• People are skittish, though, to kind of talk about applying for jobs and not getting them.
  — Eric Johnson, Recode, 26 Aug. 2018
• For a more versatile option, opt for a cooling dog pad or mat, like this one that even the most skittish pets will love.
  — Shanon Maglente, Good Housekeeping, 13 May 2022
• The trio are a match made in heaven, creating a song that has a skittish urgency.
  — Brittany Spanos, Rolling Stone, 6 Jan. 2023
• In the end, his persona as Middle Class Joe helped him calm skittish voters who just wanted Trump to be gone.
  — Philip Elliott, Time, 19 Feb. 2021
• Advertisers have been skittish on X since Musk's takeover more than a year ago.
  — CBS News, 20 Nov. 2023
• Sponsors were initially skittish so the Hendrick website for new and used cars bought some of the ad space on the No. 5 Chevrolet.
  — Jenna Fryer, Star Tribune, 14 July 2021
• Police entrusted the public's help to find the cat, which is legally owned, and noted that the breed could be skittish around strangers.
  — Lauren M. Johnson, CNN, 12 Sep. 2020
• The Big Ten, which has always seemed the most skittish of the power conferences, put a hold on full contact practices.
  — Chuck Carlton, Dallas News, 8 Aug. 2020
• For instance, some rabbits are skittish and only want to be admired from afar, and a few Tibetan yaks that were rescued from a meat farm aren’t quite ready to mingle with guests.
  — Graham Averill, Outside Online, 19 Aug. 2024
• In the back of the crowd, there were still some boys and girls laughing and skittish, but John began to talk, that way old people talk, without dreaming that anybody might not be prepared to listen.
  — E. L. Doctorow, The New Yorker, 1 July 2024

Last Updated: 16 Nov 2024