Word.ws English Dictionary

nervous nellie

nervous nellie is the alternative spelling of nervous Nellie.

Noun (1) capitalized: Nervous Nellie

Nervous Nellie (plural Nervous Nellies)

  1. (alternative) Alternative spelling of nervous Nellie.

Noun (2) capitalized: nervous Nellie

nervous Nellie (plural nervous Nellies)

  1. (informal) A person whose personality and behavior are characterized by worry, insecurity, and timidity.
    • Political opponents doubted his capacity, referred to him as "too nervous, too worried a little man," and remarked that his Senatorial colleagues used to refer to him humorously as "Nervous Nellie."1925 January 19, “Gentlemen Asleep”, in Time, archived from the original on 01 Mar 2009
    • The captain is a nervous Nellie who can't make a decision without the approval of his protective aide-de-camp.1993 November 22, Richard Zoglin, “Hill Street Blues on Happy Juice”, in Time, TV review of "Bakersfield P.D.", archived from the original on 08 Apr 2008

Synonyms of nervous nellie

Forms of nervous nellie

pluralnervous nellies
pluralNervous Nellies
pluralnervous Nellies
alternative formnervous nellie
alternative formNervous Nellie
alternative formnervous nelly
alternative formnervous Nelly
alternative formNervous Nelly

Questions about nervous nellie

What does nervous nellie mean?
Nervous nellie means a person whose personality and behavior are characterized by worry, insecurity, and timidity.
What is nervous nellie the alternative spelling of?
Nervous nellie is the alternative spelling of nervous Nellie.
What part of speech is nervous nellie?
Nervous nellie is a noun.
What is the plural of nervous nellie?
The plural of nervous nellie is nervous nellies.

Words near nervous nellie in the dictionary

  1. nervous as a whore in church
  2. nervous breakdown
  3. nervous breakdowns
  4. nervous hit
  5. nervous hits
  6. nervous nellie
  7. nervous nellies
  8. nervous nelly
  9. nervous nineties
  10. nervous pudding
  11. nervous Purvis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nervous nellie (page history and authors); Nervous Nellie (page history and authors); nervous Nellie (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.

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