Pronunciation Adjective
nervous
- Of sinews and tendons.
- (obsolete) Full of sinews. [14th–18th c.]
- (obsolete) Having strong or prominent sinews; sinewy, muscular. [15th–19th c.]
- (obsolete) Of a piece of writing#Noun|writing, literary style etc.: forceful, powerful. [17th–19th c.]
- 1788, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 264:
- Nervous, clear, and striking, was almost all that he uttered […].
- 1788, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 264:
- Of nerves.
- Supplied with nerves; innervated. [from 14th c.]
- Affecting the nerves or nervous system. [from 15th c.]
- (botany, obsolete) Nervose. [17th–18th c.]
- 1733, Philip Miller, “CANNACORUS ↗”, in The Gardeners Dictionary: Containing the Methods of Cultivating and Improving the Kitchen, Fruit and Flower Garden, […], 2nd edition, London: Printed for the author; and sold by C[harles] Rivington, […], OCLC 429215710 ↗, column 1:
- CANNACORUS, [...] It hath a knobbed tuberoſe Root: The Leaves are long and nervous: [...]
- Easily agitated or alarm#Verb|alarmed; edgy, on edge. [from 18th c.]
- Synonyms: excitable, high-strung, hypersensitive, Thesaurus:nervous
- Being in a crowd of strangers makes me nervous.
- Apprehensive, anxious, hesitant, worried#Adjective|worried. [from 18th c.]
- Synonyms: Thesaurus:nervous
- Antonyms: calm, relaxed
- 1843 December 18, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], OCLC 55746801 ↗, page 161 ↗:
- They were looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is right.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.010
