squeamish
squeamish — adjective
- squeamishpositive
- more squeamishcomparative
- most squeamishsuperlative
1. A person who is squeamish feels uncomfortable or sick when they see or experienc
A person who is squeamish feels uncomfortable or sick when they see or experience something unpleasant, such as blood, dirt, injury, or a disturbing image.
Ryo felt too squeamish to watch the nurse stitch up his wound.
too + adjective + to-infinitive pattern
Lakshmi is so squeamish about spiders that she calls a neighbour to remove them.
squeamish about + noun
The documentary about slaughterhouses made several students feel squeamish.
Lucas gets squeamish at the sight of blood and looks away during tests.
Some biology students are too squeamish to dissect a frog in class.
- queasy
Focuses more on physical nausea than emotional disgust; more common for motion sickness or stomach upset.
- easily disgusted
Direct and transparent but less concise; a phrase rather than a single adjective.
- faint-hearted
Describes a lack of courage rather than physical revulsion; overlaps only at the edges.
文法句型
squeamish + about + noun/-ing
too squeamish + to-infinitive
用法筆記
Frequently used with 'about' to specify the source of discomfort, or with 'too … to' to describe an inability to handle something. The physical nausea sense (feeling sick at the sight of blood, for example) is the more common use; the moral/ethical sense is covered under sense 2.
常見錯誤
2. If someone is squeamish about doing something, they avoid or refuse to do it bec
If someone is squeamish about doing something, they avoid or refuse to do it because they consider it dishonest, unfair, or morally wrong.
Even though the deal saved the company money, Gabriela was squeamish about firing loyal employees.
squeamish about + -ing clause
Zuri felt squeamish about taking credit for work that her teammate had done.
The politician was not squeamish about making promises he knew he could not keep.
Andrei is too squeamish to join colleagues who spread gossip about coworkers.
Salma felt squeamish about accepting the gift, worried it might be seen as a bribe.
- scrupulous
Suggests a principled, sometimes strict adherence to what is right; 'squeamish' emphasises emotional discomfort as well.
- principled
More positive and active; describes someone who acts on moral beliefs, not just avoids wrongdoing.
- hesitant
Neutral; does not carry the moral-judgment connotation of 'squeamish'.
- unscrupulous
Describes someone who does not care about honesty or fairness at all.
- unprincipled
Describes someone lacking moral standards, similar to unscrupulous but slightly less condemnatory.
文法句型
squeamish + about + noun/-ing
用法筆記
This sense is almost always used with 'about' and a gerund (e.g., 'about lying', 'about cheating'). It can also appear in the negative ('not squeamish about') to describe someone who has no moral reservations. Distinguish from sense 1, where the discomfort is physical or emotional; here the hesitation is ethical.