NERVOUS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Nervous

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/nˈərvəs/ Listen

adjective

Nervous adj.

1.

Possessing nerve; sinewy; strong; vigorous. "Nervous arms."

2.

Possessing or manifesting vigor of mind; characterized by strength in sentiment or style; forcible; spirited; as, a nervous writer.

3.

Of or pertaining to the nerves; seated in the nerves; as, nervous excitement; a nervous fever.

4.

Having the nerves weak, diseased, or easily excited; subject to, or suffering from, undue excitement of the nerves; easily agitated or annoyed. "Poor, weak, nervous creatures."

5.

Sensitive; excitable; timid.

6.

Apprehensive; as, a child nervous about his mother's reaction to his bad report card. "Our aristocratic class does not firmly protest against the unfair treatment of Irish Catholics, because it is nervous about the land."

Nervous fever (Med.), a low form of fever characterized by great disturbance of the nervous system, as evinced by delirium, or stupor, disordered sensibility, etc.

Nervous system (Anat.), the specialized coordinating apparatus which endows animals with sensation and volition. In vertebrates it is often divided into three systems: the central, brain and spinal cord; the peripheral, cranial and spinal nerves; and the sympathetic. See Brain, Nerve, Spinal cord, under Spinal, and Sympathetic system, under Sympathetic.

Nervous temperament, a condition of body characterized by a general predominance of mental manifestations.

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Etymology of 'Nervous'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Nervous" Quotes from Famous Books

... tormentor still haunted me, and loaded me with reproaches. "And is this all the gratitude I am to expect from you, Mr. Schlemihl—you, whom I have been watching all the weary day, until you should recover from your nervous attack? What a fool's part I have been enacting! It is of no use flying from me, Mr. Perverse—we are inseparable—you have my gold, I have your shadow; this exchange deprives us both of peace. Did you ever hear of a man's shadow leaving ...

— Peter Schlemihl etc. • Chamisso et. al.

... would never have got this deposition. Cobb wouldn't have been the first to weaken, you may be sure of that. But after she had told the whole story, why, there was no use in holding out. Badly burned? No, strange to say, she was not badly burned, but frightened out of her wits. The nervous shock was too much for her and soon led to fatal results. ...

— The Master of Silence • Irving Bacheller

... been about her health. It was all that her utmost exertions could accomplish, to appear for a short time in the day—some evenings she came into company only for half an hour, on other days only for a few minutes, just walked through the rooms, paid her compliments to every body, complained of a nervous head-ache, left Belinda to do the honours for ...

— Tales and Novels, Vol. III - Belinda • Maria Edgeworth

... was enormous. He ate heavy meat three times a day, but took little or no exercise. The pimples on his face became worse and worse. He grew peevish and nervous. He hated girls, and when in their society was a very bull-calf for bashfulness and awkward self-consciousness. At times the strangest and most morbid fancies took possession of him, chief of which was that every one was looking at him while he was ...

— Vandover and the Brute • Frank Norris

... to convey the intelligence to the King of Arles. The baron was himself too much excited with the momentous results at last developed, and the still more momentous sequel already shadowed forth in the uncertain future, to remark the nervous and somewhat jaded appearance of his son. His first words, after hastily ...

— The Truce of God - A Tale of the Eleventh Century • George Henry Miles

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