Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Fussy |
FussyAdjective1. Perversely irritable. 2. Overcrowded or cluttered with detail; "a busy painting"; "a fussy design". 3. Exacting especially about details; "a finicky eater"; "fussy about clothes"; "very particular about how her food was prepared". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "fussy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1831. (references) |
Note: Fussy \Fuss"y\, adjective. [Comparative Fussier; superl Fussiest.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonyms: FussySynonyms: bad-tempered (adj), busy (adj), crabbed (adj), crabby (adj), cross (adj), finical (adj), finicky (adj), grouchy (adj), grumpy (adj), ill-tempered (adj), particular (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Activity | Bustling; restless, restless as a hyena; fussy, fidgety, pottering; busy, busy as hen with one chicken. |
Excitability | Unquiet, mercurial, electric, galvanic, hasty, hurried, restless, fidgety, fussy; chafing; Verb: |
Haste | Adjective: hasty, hurried, brusque; scrambling, cursory, precipitate, headlong, furious, boisterous, impetuous, hotheaded; feverish, fussy; pushing. |
Misjudgment | Narrow-minded, narrow-souled; mean-spirited; confined, illiberal, intolerant, besotted, infatuated, fanatical, entete, positive, dogmatic, conceited; opinative, opiniative; opinioned, opinionate, opinionative, opinionated; self-opinioned, wedded to an opinion, opini_tre; bigoted; (obstinate); crotchety, fussy, impracticable; unreasonable, stupid; credulous; warped. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Fussy |
| English words defined with "fussy": busy ♦ contrariness, crankiness, crotchetiness ♦ especially ♦ fussily ♦ grumpiness ♦ messy, mussy ♦ particularly, peculiarly ♦ specially. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | He's very fussy about his drums, you know. (A Hard Day's Night; writing credit: Alun Owen) He was always very fussy. (Play It Again, Sam; writing credit: Woody Allen) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Play | Caption |
| Fussy; unhappy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Discomfort from gas or constipation might make them fussy. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Fussy" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Fussy" is used about 194 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 194 | 22,014 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "fussy": be fussy about ♦ be too fussy ♦ fussy person ♦ he is very fussy about. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "fussy": non-fussy, over-fussy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
fussy baby | 46 |
fussy | 16 |
cleaners fussy | 5 |
eater fussy | 3 |
fussy infant | 3 |
calming a fussy baby | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "fussy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | nazeli (fastidious, finicking, finicky), i ngarkuar (charged, commissioner, hot, laden, loaded, procurator), i bezdisshëm (annoying, bothersome, grating, haunting, intrusive, irksome, painful, pesky, troublous, trying, vexatious), gërnjar (bitchy, carping, finical, finicking, finicky, finikin, grouch, grouchy, grouse, grouser, grumbler, nag, nagger, nagging, peevish, pettish, petulant, quarrelsome, shrewish, termagant, wrangler). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | متطلب عناية, نيق (dainty, fidgety, finical, finicky, precise, prissy, sticky), سريع الإهتياج (inflammable, temperamental), شدد على التفاصيل. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | суетлив, претрупан (elaborate, exuberant, finical, finicking, finicky, flamboyant, florid, gaudy, luscious, lush, luxuriant, ornate, overladen, overwrought, piled, purple, redundant, rush, tawdry), превзет (affected, cute, flamboyant, glossy, histrionic, lackadaisical, mannered, mincing, minikin, namby-pamby, nice, niminy-piminy, old-maidish, pansy, precious, pretentious, pretty, pretty-pretty, priggish, prim, prissy, pseudo, recherche, schoolmistressy, sidy, snobbish, stuffy), дребнав (finical, finicking, finicky, hairsplitting, little, mean, mouldy, niggling, niminy-piminy, pernickety, pettifogging, petty, small, small minded, trivial). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 挑", 囉 (subordinate in a gang of bandits, talkative). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | vyparádìný, vybíravý (choosey, choosy, fastidious, finical, finicky, finnic, nice, particular), podráždìný (edgy, fretful, grumpy, peevish, resentful, uptight, waspish), pedantský (donnish, finicky, hairsplitting, meticulous, pedantic, prim), nervózní (high strung, highly strung, ill tempered, jittery, jumpy, nervous, nervy, neurotic, on edge, overstrung, overwrought, tense, unsettled, uptight), malicherný (narrow minded, niggling, parish pump, peddling, pettifogging, piddling, punctilious, sleeveless, small, small minded), hnidopišský, úzkostlivý (anxious, meticulous, precise, uneasy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | turhantarkka (fastidious, overparticular, pedantic, too particular). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | très orné, très énervé, tarabiscoté, maniaque (fussy person), méticuleux, difficile. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | heikel (awkward, choosy, delicate, difficult, fussily, nice, particular, pernickety, queasily, queasy, scabrous, scabrously, thorny, tickling, ticklish, tricky). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | γκρινιάρησ (cantankerous, crabbed, fault finder, grouch, grouchy, growler, mutterer, nagger, pettish, snarler, snarling, sorehead), ματαιόσχολοσ. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | מקפי" בקט ות. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | fontoskodó (bumptious, bustling, busybody, consequential, officious, owlish, pedant, pompous, pragmatic, pragmatical, prissy, self-important, to put on a consequential air), túl díszes (florid), nyűgös (fretful, grouchy, peevish, testy, tetchy), kicsinyeskedő (niggling, punctilious, to be interfering), csicsás (tawdry), cikornyás (arabesque, highfaluting, redundant), aggodalmaskodó (uneasy, uptight), aggodalmas (agonized, solicitous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | cerewet (catious, choosy, finicky, fret), celopar (finicky, garrulous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | schizzinoso (choosey, choosy, squeamish), puntiglioso (obstinate, stubborn), meticoloso (captious, carping, correct, fastidious, finickly, meticulous, nagging, particular, pedantic, punctilious, scrupulous), esigente (demanding, exacting, exactingly, exigent, finicky, particular), agitato (agitated, haywire, hectic, jittery, jumpy, nervous, overwrought, restive, restless, troubled, turbulent, upset, wild). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 煩い (agony, loud, noisy, vexation, worry), "月蝿い (loud, noisy), 気忙しい (fidgety, restless), 喧しい (noisy, strict), "き使う (for sure, i.e., make a big deal out of nothing, move stealthily, slime mold, sneakily, that is, to distort, to force, to strain, to work someone hard). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | きぜわしい (fidgety, restless), うるさい (loud, noisy), "せ"せ (make a big deal out of nothing), やかましい (noisy, strict). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | foostyragh (fidgety), fillosheragh (fanciful, fancy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Norwegian | masete, kresen (fastidious). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ussyfay nervoso (agitated, ajar, bustling, fidgety, hysterical, jumpy, nervous, nervy, on edge, restive, skittish, tremulant, tremulous, uptight), irrequieto (agog, bolter, bustling, impish, restive, skittish), intrincado (knotty, perplexed, puzzling), inquieto (agitated, anxious, bustling, disquiet, fidgety, frantic, fretful, nervous, on edge, preoccupied, qualmish, restive, restless, troubled, uneasy, unquiet), espalhafatoso (bustling, flashy, garish, gaudy, loud, noisy, staring, tawdry), difícil (arduous, cornered, cramped, difficile, difficult, go-ahead, hard, inconvenient, kid-glove, knotty, labored, laboured, nice, painful, pernickety, ponderous, puzzling, rugged, thankless, thorny, ticklish, tough, tricky, trying, well-made), barulhento (altisonant, blustering, bustling, clamant, clamorous, howling, judas-colored, judas-coloured, knockabout, loud, noisy, obstreperous, rackety, randy, rattling, red, riotous, roistering, rowdy, rumbustious, tumultuary, tumultuous, turbulent, uproarious, viatic), atarantado, agitado (agitated, astir, bustling, choppy, eventful, fidgety, frantic, fretful, hectic, jumpy, restless, rough, sleepless, trembling, troubled, troublous, tumultuous, turbulent, unquiet, unsettled, working). (various references) sâcâitor (annoying, busy, dragging, naggy, pestering, trying, worrying), sâcâit, nervos (fidgety, hysterical, ill natured, impatient, impatiently, irritably, irritated, jumpy, nervous, nervously, nervy, neurotic, overwrought, sinewy), delicat (captious, dainty, delicate, delicately, fine, fine-spun, finicky, fragile, frail, gentle, gentlemanlike, gently, mellow, nice, queasy, refined, slender, slim, slippery, soft, subdued, tactful, tender, thin, ticklish, tricky, weak), agitat (agitated, agog, angry, billowy, choppy, excited, excitedly, fevered, feverish, fractious, fretful, hectic, irritated, nervous, restless, snappish, tempestuous, unsettled). (various references) суетливый (bustling, fidgety, pernickety), нервный (edgy, high-strung, jittery, jumpy, nervious, nervous, nervy, neural, neurotic, wrought-up), аляповатый (awkward, coarse, crude, harsh). (various references) sitničarski. (various references) quisquilloso (cantankerous, pernickety, persnickety, pettifogging, petty, spiky, squeamish, touchy), nimio (niggling), meticuloso (accurate, meticulous, precise, scrupulous, thorough), exigente (demanding, exacting, exigent, particular, strict), delicado (daintier, dainty, dead, delicate, exquisite, fastidious, finicky, frail, hard to please, hard to speak, hypersensitive, kid glove, killed, particular, polite, refined, sharp, squeamish, subtile, subtle, tenderly, too sensitive, very sensitive), con muchos ringorrangos, ñoño (characterless, namby-pamby, senile, spineless). (various references) kinkig (choosey, difficult, discriminated, fastidious, Kittle, parlous, particular, pernickety, petulant, spiny, squeamish, testing, tricky). (various references) จุกจิกจู้จี้. (various references) zor beğenen (choosy, difficult, exacting, fastidious, finical, finicking, finicky, queasy), yaygaracı (blatant, clamorous, noisy, obstreperous, squaller), titiz (careful, choosy, cleanly, critical, dainty, demanding, difficult, exact, exacting, exigent, fastidious, finical, finicking, finicky, hypercritical, jealous, jealous of, meticulous, niggling, niminy-piminy, particular, peevish, pernickety, picky, rigorous, scrupulous, squeamish, touchy), telaşlı (bustling, discomposedly, disconcerted, disconcerting, excitable, excited, feverish, flurried, hectic, hurried, uptight), mızmız (crab, crybaby, grouchy, hesitant, kicker, pernickety, picky, querulous, sluggish), detaycı (hypercritical, niggling). (various references) talapkдr (exacting, particular). (various references) недоладний (awkward, off-key, slouch), метушливий (bustling, fidgety, old womanish). (various references) kiểu cách (euphuistic, fashion, frill, lardy-dardy, mannered, precious, preciously), hay rối rít; hay nhắng nhít, hay om sòm, hay nhặng xị; hay quan trọng hoá cầu kỳ. (various references) ffwdanus (fidgety, flurried). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | curiosa, curiosae, curiose, curiosius, curiosus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "fussy": overfussy, unfussy. (additional references) | |
| |
"Fussy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Fassi, Fessey, fissy, fisy, Fossi, fossy, fosy, fss, fsss, Fsyn, fulsy, fursy, fus, fushy, fusk, fusse, Fussey, fusy, fuzey, ussy, usy. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "fussy" (pronounced fu"sē) |
| 3 | -u" s ē | Gussie, gussy, hussy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "f-s-s-u-y" | |
-1 letter: fuss. | |
-3 letters: us. | |
| Words containing the letters "f-s-s-u-y" | |
+2 letters: fussily, russify, unfussy. | |
+3 letters: synfuels. | |
+4 letters: bodysurfs, dyestuffs, overfussy, pussyfoot, sulfinyls, sulfonyls, sulfuryls, unfussily. | |
+5 letters: blissfully, joyfulness, pussyfoots, russifying. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)46 75 73 73 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)..-. ..- ... ... -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000110 01110101 01110011 01110011 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)F u s s y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0046 0075 0073 0073 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)4087858591 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.