From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishskittishskit‧tish /ˈskɪtɪʃ/ adjective 1 DSHNERVOUSan animal, especially a horse, that is skittish gets excited or frightened very easily2 CHANGE YOUR MINDa person who is skittish is not very serious, and their feelings, behaviour, and opinions keep changing3 if people who buy shares are skittish, they are nervous and worried about them dropping in value, and might sell the shares that they own because of this SYN jittery Some skittish Wall Street investors are staying away from the market. —skittishly adverb
Examples from the Corpus
skittish• Any pack animals the adventurers have may get restless and skittish.• And if Apple falls apart, software developers could get even more skittish about sinking money into writing programs for Macs.• Institutional investors such as mutual funds are more skittish and can bail out after a few quarters of soft earnings.• Cranston's mount became skittish and even Philomel showed a lively interest in the group round the scaffold.• At the heart of the problem is this: Bighorn sheep are skittish animals.• My horse was skittish, I could not settle him.• As it is, the thundering herd is likely to prove a skittish lot.• At work she was a supremely confident executive; with her first child she was a skittish novice.Origin skittish (1300-1400) Perhaps from Old Norse skjota “to shoot” 