Library / English Dictionary

FIDGET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A feeling of agitation expressed in continual motion

Example:

waiting gave him a feeling of restlessness

Synonyms:

fidget; fidgetiness; restlessness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("fidget" is a kind of...):

agitation (the feeling of being agitated; not calm)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fidget"):

impatience (a restless desire for change and excitement)

Derivation:

fidget (move restlessly)

fidgety (nervous and unable to relax)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move restlessly

Example:

The child is always fidgeting in his seat

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "fidget" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

fidget (a feeling of agitation expressed in continual motion)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Without appearing to hear her, he walked to the window, fidgeted about, hummed a tune, and seemed wholly self-occupied.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove buttons.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For my part, I was fidgeting in my seat in my impatience, but my uncle’s calm, pale face and large blue eyes were as tranquil and demure as those of the most unconcerned spectator.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mr. Yates took the subject from his friend as soon as possible, and immediately gave Sir Thomas an account of what they had done and were doing: told him of the gradual increase of their views, the happy conclusion of their first difficulties, and present promising state of affairs; relating everything with so blind an interest as made him not only totally unconscious of the uneasy movements of many of his friends as they sat, the change of countenance, the fidget, the hem! of unquietness, but prevented him even from seeing the expression of the face on which his own eyes were fixed—from seeing Sir Thomas's dark brow contract as he looked with inquiring earnestness at his daughters and Edmund, dwelling particularly on the latter, and speaking a language, a remonstrance, a reproof, which he felt at his heart.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The European Secretary pulled nervously at his moustache and fidgeted with the seals of his watch-chain.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She began at length to recover, to fidget about in her chair, get up, sit down again, wonder, and bless herself.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

She says I fidget her to death; and Miss Woodhouse looks as if she could almost say the same.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Scott Eccles had fidgeted in his seat during this conversation.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was bitter cold in the morning, she dropped her precious turnover in the gutter, Aunt March had an attack of the fidgets, Meg was sensitive, Beth would look grieved and wistful when she got home, and Amy kept making remarks about people who were always talking about being good and yet wouldn't even try when other people set them a virtuous example.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

With such means in his power he had a right to be listened to; and though Mrs. Norris could fidget about the room, and disturb everybody in quest of two needlefuls of thread or a second-hand shirt button, in the midst of her nephew's account of a shipwreck or an engagement, everybody else was attentive; and even Lady Bertram could not hear of such horrors unmoved, or without sometimes lifting her eyes from her work to say, Dear me! how disagreeable!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)