squeamish

Meaning

1. Easily shocked, sickened or frightened; tending to be nauseated or nervous; oversensitive.
2. Averse or reluctant.

Synonyms

fastidious

dainty

particular

choosy

meticulous

nice

overnice

pernickety

prissy

fussy

scrupulous

queasy

hard to please

delicate

snobbish

squeamishly

susceptible

tender

touchy

weak

la-di-da

shrink from

sick to one’s stomach

mawmish

wambly

nauseatic

arrogant

wallowish

chichi

choosey

discriminating

disdain

finical

finicky

fragile

frail

liverish

mawkish

picky

prim

punctilious

Translations

schizzinoso

zimperlich

tiksinti

preuts

aprensivo

titiz

empfindlich

délicat

penibel

fastidiosus

melindroso

delicado

pingelig

angewidert

anspruchsvoll

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈskwiːmɪʃ/

Etymology

Origin obscure. Likely a merger of earlier squeamous (“squeamish”), from Middle English squaimous, queimous, from Anglo-Norman escoimus, escoymous, of unknown origin; and dialectal English sweamish, sweemish (“faint, squeamish”), from sweam (“dizziness, sudden qualm of sickness”) and dialectal sweem (“to swoon, be faint, be overcome, feel sick”), from Middle English swemen (“to grieve, make suffer, be faint of heart”), from Old English *swǣman (“to grieve, trouble, afflict”). If so, then related to swim (“to be dizzy, swoon”). See also sweam.