UNEASY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does uneasy mean? 

• UNEASY (adjective)
  The adjective UNEASY has 5 senses:

1. lacking a sense of security or affording no ease or reassurance

2. lacking or not affording physical or mental rest

3. causing or fraught with or showing anxiety

4. socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner

5. relating to bodily unease that causes discomfort

  Familiarity information: UNEASY used as an adjective is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNEASY (adjective)

Comparative: uneasier   
Superlative: uneasiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking a sense of security or affording no ease or reassurance

Context example:

an uneasy silence fell on the group

Similar:

apprehensive; worried (mentally upset over possible misfortune or danger etc)

precarious; unstable (affording no ease or reassurance)

Also:

uncomfortable (conducive to or feeling mental discomfort)

unquiet (characterized by unrest or disorder)

tense (in or of a state of physical or nervous tension)

Antonym:

easy (free from worry or anxiety)

Derivation:

uneasiness (feelings of anxiety that make you tense and irritable)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking or not affording physical or mental rest

Synonyms:

restless; uneasy

Context example:

she fell into an uneasy sleep

Derivation:

uneasiness (inability to rest or relax or be still)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Causing or fraught with or showing anxiety

Synonyms:

anxious; nervous; queasy; uneasy; unquiet

Context example:

an unquiet mind

Similar:

troubled (characterized by or indicative of distress or affliction or danger or need)

Derivation:

uneasiness (inability to rest or relax or be still)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner

Synonyms:

awkward; ill at ease; uneasy

Context example:

was always uneasy with strangers

Similar:

uncomfortable (conducive to or feeling mental discomfort)

Derivation:

uneasiness (the trait of seeming ill at ease)

uneasiness (embarrassment deriving from the feeling that others are critically aware of you)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Relating to bodily unease that causes discomfort

Similar:

uncomfortable (providing or experiencing physical discomfort)

Derivation:

uneasiness (physical discomfort (as mild sickness or depression))

 Context examples 

I was very uneasy and very uncertain in my mind what to say or do for the best—so was Traddles, evidently.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Nausea is an uneasy or unsettled feeling in the stomach together with an urge to vomit.

(Nausea and Vomiting, NIH)

You may feel uneasy at first.

(Infant and Newborn Care, NIH)

At length she became uneasy, and wakened the boy, and asked: Do you know where my husband is?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It was evident to me that he was becoming uneasy, and that his plans were not working out altogether as he had hoped.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She need not have been uneasy.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She saw him grave and uneasy; and however careless of his present comfort the woman might be who had given him her heart, to her it was always an object.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Her sisters were uneasy for her, but her mother was delighted.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Yes; it was to see or hear news of a friend about whom I had for some time been uneasy.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But indeed, my dear, you need not be uneasy.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)