squeamish

English

Alternative forms

• sweamish, swaimish (dialectal)
• squeimish, squemish, squeamous (obsolete)

Etymology

Alteration of earlier squeamous, substituting -ous with -ish, from Anglo-Norman escoymous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskwiːmɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

squeamish (comparative more squeamish, superlative most squeamish)

1. easily bothered or upset; tending to be nauseated or nervous; oversensitive

   He might have made a good doctor, had he not been so squeamish about the sight of blood.

2. averse or reluctant

Translations

easily bothered or upset; tending to be nauseous or nervous

• Czech: citlivý (cs) m, choulostivý m
• Danish: berøringsangst
• Dutch: teergevoelig (nl), snel misselijk
• Finnish: herkkähermoinen
• German: empfindlich (de), zimperlich (de)
• Hungarian: finnyás (hu)
• Irish: samhnasach
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: pysete
• Polish: wrażliwy (pl) m
• Russian: чувстви́тельный (ru) (čuvstvítelʹnyj) (sensitive), оби́дчивый (ru) (obídčivyj) (touchy, easily taking offense), брезгли́вый (ru) (brezglívyj) (fastidious, mincing)
• Spanish: remilgado (es), quisquilloso (es), aprensivo
• Swedish: äckelmagad (sv)