What's the difference between jaunty and skittish?

Jaunty


Definition:

  • (superl.) Airy; showy; finical; hence, characterized by an affected or fantastical manner.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A few passersby, some in fancy dress ahead of Purim holiday, stopped to the read the signs: a man wearing a jaunty green Robin Hood cap with a red feather; some men in judo outfits.
  • (2) The score has a barrel-organ or carousel jauntiness, and sometimes sounds like an old air you once gathered peascods to.
  • (3) The theme tune alone, a jaunty bit of jazz-rock in a call-and-response format, can induce a mental state that, on a winter morning when the sun will not rise for another two hours, is doomy and tinged with moral collapse.
  • (4) A photo of Anne with her elder sister and parents out together in May 1941 near their home in Amsterdam is a poignant reminder of the freedom they lost, while a jaunty image of Anne, taken by her sister Margot, shows her leaning over the balcony of a block of flats and letting her hair fly.
  • (5) Gatherer found five blocs operating between 1999 and 2005, and he gave them jaunty names.
  • (6) The clinic's wheelchairs have white plastic seats cut from garden furniture, lending an incongruous jauntiness to the wretchedness.
  • (7) The Advertising Standards Authority took an earlier, equally jaunty ad off the air , ruling that the "light-hearted presentation of the ad was likely to mislead about the nature and implications of the product".
  • (8) Jaunty tailored jackets, harlequin coats and trousers with zips at the ankle were styled with high-collared printed shirts and ponytails.
  • (9) The PA system should blast out a bit of jaunty piano, but doesn't.
  • (10) Succinct tales of fracture and failure, and thumbnail sketches of lonely desperation, positively revelling in the flotsam of American life are all set to jaunty rock and ragtime rhythms.
  • (11) There she is on the back of the jacket, beaming out from a photo in which she’s dressed up like a naval captain, complete with jaunty cap and pipe, her gaze trained on some far-off horizon.
  • (12) Beetlejuice is darker and weightier and definitely ends on more jaunty Harry Belafonte songs than The Dark Knight Rises.
  • (13) The three Alexander McQueen outfits that made the most front pages from the Duchess of Cambridge's recent tour wardrobe were: a sky blue belted knee-length coat, accessorised with navy round-toe suede shoes and a matching clutch bag; a demure dove grey coat with a jaunty grey hat; and a ballet-shoe pink peplum top and skirt, which the duchess wore with LK Bennett courts and pearl drop earrings.
  • (14) If you still remember General Pinochet's jaunty arrival at Santiago airport, despite his alleged senility and collapsing health, take heart.
  • (15) Forlan is dropping deep and causing a lot of trouble, his playmaker's hat wedged onto his turnip at a jaunty angle.
  • (16) The Christmas tree in the reception of what used to be Mark Group, an energy company with more than 1,000 staff, looks jaunty enough but underneath it there are barely a handful of presents.
  • (17) There are isolated jaunty moments: a musical duet with an existentialist banjo; some amusing homilies written on cards and distributed to the audience.
  • (18) Give me honky tears,' he howls on 'South Side of the World', a song that manages to sound jaunty and angry, and as close to political as he has yet come.'
  • (19) 4.57pm BST The Italian tune passes off without a hitch, a jaunty number with which the players sing along merrily, though Pirlo, as ever, seems to be putting to be putting in less effort than everyone else - but he probably has the voice of Pavarotti.
  • (20) Many more pop star national anthem reviews here : Brazil have a wonderfully jaunty national anthem that climbs up and down the scales with the agility of a young Jairzinho.

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.