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twiddly

twiddly

8.8
Making small nervous movements with the fingers or hands
  • adjective
  • /ˈtwɪdli/
translation icon : inquieto
  • She became twiddly while waiting for the results, twisting her ring nervously.

Examples

  • He felt twiddly before the interview and kept tapping his fingers on the table.

  • The children grew twiddly during the long car ride and couldn't sit still.

  • He has a twiddly habit of playing with his pen.

  • Stop being so twiddly during the meeting!

  • He felt twiddly before the interview and kept tapping his fingers on the table.

  • She became twiddly while waiting for the results, twisting her ring nervously.

  • The children grew twiddly during the long car ride and couldn't sit still.

Synonyms

squirrelly
vstwiddly
  • Informal
10 9.1

Feeling nervous and acting in strange, unpredictable ways

describes small controlled finger movements rather than strange unpredictable behaviour
fidgety
vstwiddly
8 4.8

Unable to stay still because you feel nervous

is specific to small repeated hand or finger motions rather than general restlessness
twitchy
vstwiddly
  • Informal
2 3.9

Making small, sudden movements of the body

is about repeated voluntary finger or hand movement not sudden jerks
squirmy
vstwiddly
1 3.5

Moving in a restless, wiggly way

focuses on small hand motions rather than whole body wriggling
tweaky
vstwiddly
  • NSFW
9.5

Feeling nervous and unable to sit still

is about small repeated hand motions rather than focused detail or stimulant causes

Antonyms

1.0

Not moving or making a sound

735 1.0

Not showing strong feelings and being very still

How Fidgety

agitated
49 4.1
fidgety
8 4.8
twitchy
  • Informal
2 3.9
twiddly
8.8
restless
110 3.0
uneasy
98 3.2
calm
735 1.0

Surface Forms

twiddly positive

Morphology

twiddly = twiddle (transparent) = twiddle + y

Formed by adding the productive adjective-forming suffix '-y' to 'twiddle', yielding 'characterized by twiddling'.

Etymology

Twiddly comes from the verb twiddle and the ending -y, and twiddle means 'to twist or fidget with the fingers'. Think of someone nervously twisting a ring or tapping their fingers, and you have the image that makes twiddly mean 'restless and fidgety'.