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
• The two tried to get out as quickly as possible, but their skittish cat, CatMandu, was zooming around their Paradise home.
  — Evan Bush, NBC News, 11 Aug. 2024

Last Updated: 10 Dec 2024