Word.ws English Dictionary

jitterbug

/ˈd͡ʒɪtə(ɹ)bʌɡ/

jitterbug noun: a nervous or jittery person.

Noun

jitterbug (plural jitterbugs)

  1. (colloquial) A nervous or jittery person.
  2. (jazz) A jazz musician or aficionado.
  3. An uptempo jazz or swing dance which embellishes on the two-step pattern and frequently incorporates acrobatic style swing steps.
  4. Synonym of diddley bow (“type of stringed instrument”).
    Synonyms:
    diddley bow

Verb

jitterbug (third-person singular simple present jitterbugs, present participle jitterbugging, simple past and past participle jitterbugged)

  1. To dance the jitterbug.

jitterbug meaning in Tamil and Bengali

jitterbug in Tamil

அவைக்கூச்ச நடுக்கமுடையவர், அவைக்கூச்சமுடையவர்

jitterbug in Bengali

একজন স্নায়বিক, অস্থির ব্যক্তি, একজন জ্যাজ সংগীতশিল্পী, অনুরাগী, জিটারবাগ নাচ নাচা

Synonyms of jitterbug

All synonyms of jitterbug

Forms of jitterbug

Noun
pluraljitterbugs
Verb
third-person singular presentjitterbugs
present participlejitterbugging
past participlejitterbugged
pastjitterbugged

Origin of jitterbug

From jitter + bug, after the 1934 Cab Calloway song “Jitter Bug”.

Words formed from jitterbug

Questions about jitterbug

What does jitterbug mean?
Jitterbug means a nervous or jittery person.
What is jitterbug in Tamil?
Jitterbug in Tamil is அவைக்கூச்ச நடுக்கமுடையவர், அவைக்கூச்சமுடையவர். See Jitterbug meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is jitterbug?
Jitterbug can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce jitterbug?
Jitterbug is pronounced /ˈd͡ʒɪtə(ɹ)bʌɡ/.
What is the plural of jitterbug?
The plural of jitterbug is jitterbugs.

Words near jitterbug in the dictionary

  1. jits
  2. Jitsuko
  3. jitted
  4. jitter
  5. jitter lapse
  6. jitterbug
  7. jitterbugged
  8. jitterbugger
  9. jitterbuggers
  10. jitterbugging
  11. jitterbugs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jitterbug (page history and authors); jitterbug (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); jitterbug (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-jitterbug.wav.

Cite this entry: “jitterbug.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jitterbug. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.