Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Experiencing nausea; nauseated.
  • adjective Easily nauseated.
  • adjective Causing nausea; sickening.
  • adjective Causing uneasiness.
  • adjective Uneasy; troubled.
  • adjective Easily troubled.
  • adjective Ill at ease; squeamish.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Affected with nausea; inclined to vomit.
  • Fastidious; squeamish; delicate.
  • Apt to cause nausea; occasioning uncomfortable feelings; hence, requiring to be delicately handled; ticklish; nice.
  • Short; brief.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Sick at the stomach; affected with nausea; inclined to vomit; qualmish.
  • adjective Fastidious; squeamish; delicate; easily disturbed; unsettled; ticklish.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective experiencing or causing nausea or uneasiness, often characterized by an unsettled stomach
  • adjective easily troubled; squeamish

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective causing or able to cause nausea
  • adjective feeling nausea; feeling about to vomit
  • adjective causing or fraught with or showing anxiety

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English coisy, perhaps of Scandinavian origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English coysy, possibly from Old Norse kveisa ("boil") ( > Norwegian kveise/kvise), perhaps influenced by Anglo-Norman queisier, from Old French coisier ("to wound, hurt, make uneasy").

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Examples

  • But instead I ended up at the party in the garden with my mother, my sister and HER boyfriend instead, feeling rather queasy from the fish salad and the sparkling wine and retreating back into the quiet (because empty) house at 1. 30am while the rest stayed out till five.

    2010, whether we like it or not. greygirlbeast 2010

  • Ted greeted the detective with an expression of queasy solicitude, but when he caught sight of Charles something between disconcertion and abject terror took over his face.

    Here Comes Another Lesson Stephen O’Connor 2010

  • For that matter, many moderates remain queasy about legalizing gay marriage; they are sympathetic to homosexuals, but not that sympathetic.

    The Marrying Kind 2002

  • For that matter, many moderates remain queasy about legalizing gay marriage; they are sympathetic to homosexuals, but not that sympathetic.

    The Marrying Kind 2002

  • I thought it was a coincidence at first - I knew taking the pill made me feel queasy, which is hardly unusual with an antibiotic, so sort of dismissed the speechlessness.

    K is for Knitting, L is for Lung, M is for Mothering ailbhe 2005

  • I'm not quite as sick as I was yesterday; I can drink tea without feeling sloshy and queasy, which is nice.

    Sickness, Poems, Art and Sleep ailbhe 2005

  • Yes, even a cupcake blogger can eat too many cupcakes in one day that she get queasy, which is what happened yesterday.

    Cupcakes Take The Cake Rachel 2010

  • And it starts off by you're feeling kind of queasy and sick, and then you start throwing up.

    Egg Recall Leaves Consumers Nervous 2010

  • And it starts off by you're feeling kind of queasy and sick, and then you start throwing up.

    Egg Recall Leaves Consumers Nervous 2010

  • And it starts off by you're feeling kind of queasy and sick, and then you start throwing up.

    Egg Recall Leaves Consumers Nervous 2010

Comments

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  • Okay, I think WeirdNet is just completely bonkers on this one. I have never heard "queasy" used to describe something that makes a person nauseated.

    January 11, 2008

  • You mean like queasy descriptions of luncheon meats?

    January 11, 2008