nervous
- 1Feeling worried or afraid about something that might happen.
Like the worried feeling you get before a big test.
She felt nervous before her first day at the new school.
He gets nervous whenever he has to speak in front of people.
Similaranxious, apprehensive, uneasy, tense, jittery
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- 2Easily scared or upset, and quick to react to small things.
Like a cat that runs and hides at the smallest sound.
Their nervous dog barks at every little sound outside.
He is a nervous person who jumps at sudden noises.
Similarexcitable, high-strung, hypersensitive
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- 3Relating to the nerves or the body's nerve network.
This medicine treats problems with the nervous system.
A bad fall can hurt the nervous tissue in your back.
Similarneurological, neural
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- 4Supplied with nerves, so the part can feel and send signals.
The skin on your fingertips is very nervous, with many nerves that sense touch.
Lips are highly nervous, packed with tiny nerve endings.
Similarinnervated
- 5Used about writing or speech that is forceful and full of energy.
The old speech was famous for its nervous, forceful style.
Critics loved the writer's nervous, powerful sentences.
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- 6Strong and muscular, with firm, well-developed muscles.
[T]here is nothing in marble equal to the Venus of Medici, for ſoftneſs and tenderneſs; as there is nothing ſo ſtrong and nervous, as the Hercules Farneſe.
1747, [Joseph] Spence, “Dial[ogue] VIII”Here, nervous means strong and muscular.Note
- 7Full of tough, stringy fibers, like the sinews in meat.
The cheap cut of meat was tough and nervous, hard to chew.
She trimmed the nervous parts from the meat before cooking.
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- 8In plants, used about a leaf that has clear veins or lines running through it.
The plant's nervous leaves showed clear lines from base to tip.
He drew the nervous leaf with all its veins marked.
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Practice
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Origin
From Latin nervosus, meaning full of nerves or sinews, from nervus meaning nerve or sinew. In English it is nerve plus -ous.