jitter

English

Etymology 1

Possibly alteration of chitter (“tremble, shiver”), from Middle English chittern (“to twitter, chatter”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈdʒɪt.ə(ɹ)/, SAMPA: /"dZIt.@(r)/
• Rhymes: -ɪtə(r)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

jitter (plural jitters)

1. A nervous action; a tic.
2. A state of nervousness (primarily used in the plural - often with 'the'.)

   That creepy movie gave me the jitters.

   • 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, BBC:

     But Bolton deserve real credit, seeking to take advantage of their jitters at every opportunity in typically determined fashion.

3. (telecommunications) An abrupt and unwanted variation of one or more signal characteristics.

Related terms

• jitterbug
• have the jitters

Translations

A nervous action; a tic

A state of nervousness; the jitters

(Telecommunications) an abrupt and unwanted variation of signal characteristics

Dutch: interferentie (nl)

Russian: дрожание (ru) n., джиттер (ru) m.

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

French : crainte (2) German : Zittern (2)

Spanish : temblores, escalofríos (2)

Verb

jitter (third-person singular simple present jitters, present participle jittering, simple past and past participle jittered)

1. (intransitive) To be nervous.

Synonyms

• fidget

Etymology 2

jit +‎ -er

Noun

jitter (plural jitters)

1. (computing) A program or routine that performs jitting.

Anagrams

• trijet