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Glite Dictionary
🌀 To move nervously 🌀 A restless feeling
to fidget

to fidget

26 3.4
To make small nervous movements, often with hands or feet
  • verb
  • /ˈfɪdʒɪt/
translation icon : moverse nerviosamente
  • During the long meeting, he couldn't help but fidget in his chair.

There are spontaneous movement, like just what I'm doing here with my hands and fidgeting.

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Examples

  • Because the moment that people are are alone, even for a few seconds, they become anxious, they panic, they fidget, they reach for a device.

  • The splenetic Walter Barrett, millionaire industrialist, is fidgeting in his chair as Gordon enters.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • "Well," said the colonel, beginning to fidget, "what more do you want to know?"

    Fiction book (1993)

  • You have a tendency to fidget sometimes.

    Syrup (2013)

  • It'd help if you wouldn't fidget.

    Trouble with the Curve (2012)

  • Betty was looking decidedly pale as she fidgeted in her chair.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • His wife in the back seat seemed terribly nervous, fidgeting with a lipstick tube and sighing.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • "Meredydd lowered her eyes and fidgeted with the sash of her tunic.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Beside him, his eighteen-year-old sister, Phaedra, fidgeted and wrung her hands.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • When she gets anxious, she tends to fidget with her fingers.

Synonyms

to wiggle
vsto fidget
89 1.0

To move with small, quick movements from side to side or up and down

is nervous restless small movements specifically of hands or feet
to fiddle
vsto fidget
  • Informal
41 4.7

To touch or move something without a clear purpose

is restless small movements caused by nervousness rather than casual touching
to fiddle with
vsto fidget
32 3.9

To touch or move something nervously without thinking

is involuntary small hand or foot movements showing nervousness or impatience
to twiddle
vsto fidget
8 5.5

To move a small thing back and forth with your fingers, often when nervous

is general small hand or foot movements caused by nervousness or impatience
squirm
vsto fidget
4 4.1

A small twisting movement of the body that shows discomfort or nervousness

is smaller repeated hand or foot motions rather than whole body wriggling
to jitter
vsto fidget
2 4.6

To shake or move quickly because you are nervous

is milder small hand or foot movements from nervousness or impatience

Antonyms

calm
52 1.0

A quiet, peaceful feeling that helps you stay steady

stillness
38 3.5

A time of complete quiet and no movement that feels calm

Compounds

fidget-bottom
  • Informal
9.9

A person who cannot sit still and often moves or plays with things

How Restless

to flail
38 5.8
to squirm
68 3.9
to fidget
26 3.4
to twiddle
8 5.5

Surface Forms

fidget infinitive
fidgeted past
fidgeted past participle
fidgeting present participle
fidgets third person singular

Etymology

Fidget comes from older English forms that try to copy quick, small movements, so a helpful way to remember it is to hear the word as a tiny nervous sound. So to fidget is to make small, restless movements because you are nervous or impatient.