Fidgety means unable to keep still. A fidgety child, feeling fidgety, fidgety hands.
The movement is small and repeated — tapping, jiggling, shifting — which is what separates it from restless. It often means boredom or nerves rather than energy, and small movements of this kind burn real calories over a day. Note fidget beneath it.
1adjectivefidgetyUnable to keep still.
“The children grew fidgety during the long speech and kept swinging their legs.”
fidgety is a quality of movement.
Old English
-ettan
Middle English
*-ten
English
fidget
English, today
fidgety
From fidget + -y. fidget comes from fidge + et, possibly from Middle English -ten, from Old English -ettan.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA