jumpy

comparative jumpier · superlative jumpiest

1. Nervous and excited.

   "I wish it was well over," admitted Hollyer. "I'm not particularly jumpy, but this gives me a touch of the creeps."

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

   1 more example

   It was the butler who saw him go. Twelve o'clock at night and raining hard. So next night I was up at the house and, sure enough, master was off again. Stephens and I went after him, but it was jumpy work, for it would have been a bad job if he had seen us.

   1927 March 5, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place”, in The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published June 1927, →OCLC, page 281

2. Tending to jump; full of jumps.

   Near-synonym: saltatory

   2 more examples

   We moved at a good clip, so I reached up to pull shut the window coverings, just in case this jumpy frog decided to escape.

   2018, Candice Gilmer, Ending The Curse

   Meanwhile, the car pursued its jumpy course, and I could not prevent myself laughing.

   2022, Maurice Renard, New Bodies for Old

   Synonyms: saltatory