What's the difference between flibbertigibbet and skittish?

Flibbertigibbet


Definition:

  • (n.) An imp.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Priapic gadabouts in peephole codpieces hey-nonny-no-ing past plates of glazed pig as smouldering flibbertigibbets pout and motion to their jugs.
  • (2) I arrived there rather starry-eyed and naive and young, and didn't find it a hugely happy experience, because the women who were there permanently, not surprisingly, totally reasonably, thought, 'Who are these flibbertigibbets?'
  • (3) He said: "As to the prime minister, I'd rather have a man who knows his own mind, grasps the picture and sticks to his guns, rather than a shallow flibbertigibbet who has not had the guts to take on his own party, let alone find any ideas to change the country."
  • (4) She seems at pains to emphasise this fact, as if I might be about to dismiss her as a lightweight flibbertigibbet who thinks GDP is a brand of hair straightener.
  • (5) She says her team does not employ "young gregarious flibbertigibbets" and "we don't get rid of people just because they look older.
  • (6) She had started out as a teenage dancer on Top of the Pops before becoming a mainstay of 1980s Saturday morning children's TV: she played a roller-skating flibbertigibbet on Number 73 , and presented Motormouth .

Skittish


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Easily frightened; timorous; shy; untrustworthy; as, a skittish colt.
  • (v. t.) Wanton; restive; freakish; volatile; changeable; fickle.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Jason Conibear, market analyst at forex specialists, Cambridge Mercantile, argues that Obama will be breathing a sigh of relief, even though US economic growth is slowing: American consumers are getting skittish again, but with the giant economy's output still creeping upwards, politicians and policymakers will find the perfect excuse to do nothing.
  • (2) Bosnia were dreadfully vulnerable on their left with Lulic often drawn forwards, a situation not helped by the uncharacteristic skittishness of Emir Spahic, the left-sided centre-back, who misplaced a couple of passes in the opening 10 minutes and looked anxious throughout.
  • (3) Obama, who had been skittish about coming to Copenhagen at all unless it could be cast as a foreign policy success, looked visibly frustrated as he appeared before world leaders.
  • (4) As Shallow, he “pecks at the lines, nibbles at them like a parrot biting on a nut; for all his age, he darts here and there nimbly enough, even skittishly: forgetting nothing, not even the pleasure of Falstaff’s page, that ‘little tiny thief’.” But if Tynan was enamoured of Olivier, he was also alert to the miniaturist precision of Alec Guinness.
  • (5) The first episodes show a woman stumbling between responses: refusing punishing treatment that might prolong her life slightly; cartwheeling down corridors; deciding not to tell her family about the diagnosis; flashing her doctor; keeping her juvenile husband at arm's length; and trying desperately, skittishly, to fix her teenage son's brattish behaviour before it's too late.
  • (6) Cameron Peacock, market analyst at IG Markets, said the financial markets were in "skittish" mood.
  • (7) Assuming, as still seems likely, that it passes, the odds that the White House will get legislators – who'll already be skittish about how changes to the healthcare system might impact on their re-election chances – to swallow another big pill like that are slim indeed.
  • (8) For now, it seems the selling is confined to the more skittish market participants, but if the index moves much lower the quiet retreat could turn into an increasingly panicky rout.
  • (9) Factory's Happy Mondays bound together the exotic new dance rhythms with a groggy Lancastrian verse, and in the movement known as Madchester was born the commercialisation of the abstract, agitating spirit of Factory, and the spirited postmodern skittishness of Wilson.
  • (10) If they do not assert that clear control, these technology companies risk losing business – not only from skittish consumers, but also from corporate and foreign-government clients.
  • (11) He learnt the new motions, the vastly swaying skittishness and violence of the revenant rigs.
  • (12) Matip’s aerial prowess should help improve Liverpool’s ability to defend set-pieces and he is a sound tackler and tidy builder from the back, but what his team need most in the absence of further defensive recruits is an organiser who can somehow instil concentration and calmness into chronically skittish team-mates.
  • (13) Skittish, exasperating and endearing, yes, but never dull.
  • (14) Putting in some time behind the till of my family’s shop before Christmas reminded me that the customer is a skittish beast.
  • (15) I’m not surprised that some [backbenchers] are skittish, because there’s all this stuff in the ether and they don’t have a broad-based package to look at.” Turnbull appeared to step back from the GST proposal during the week, answering questions from Labor on the revenue measure during question time by saying no plans had been finalised.
  • (16) Speaking at a meeting of the Business Roundtable in Washington, Obama warned Republicans against “playing chicken with an $18tn economy” by threatening a shutdown, especially in “skittish” stock market conditions.
  • (17) His comments are likely to add to the volatility of already skittish markets.
  • (18) I had been warned that she had been skittish about agreeing to do media interviews, that she was concerned certain boundaries should not be crossed - which put me doubly on my guard.
  • (19) Zuckerberg himself made clear that he wasn’t going to loosen his reigns on Facebook, reassuring skittish shareholders that he would continue to serve as the company’s CEO “for many, many years to come”.
  • (20) Gliding was inhibited on very hydrophobic substrata and skittish on very hydrophilic surfaces.

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