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Giddy vs Dizzy - What's the difference?

giddy | dizzy |

Dizzy is a synonym of giddy.



As adjectives the difference between giddy and dizzy

is that giddy is dizzy, feeling dizzy or unsteady and as if about to fall down while dizzy is having a sensation of whirling, with a tendency to fall; giddy; feeling unbalanced or lightheaded.

As verbs the difference between giddy and dizzy

is that giddy is to make dizzy or unsteady while dizzy is to make dizzy, to bewilder.

giddy

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Dizzy, feeling dizzy or unsteady and as if about to fall down.
    • The man became giddy upon standing up so fast.
  • Causing dizziness: causing dizziness or a feeling of unsteadiness.
    • They climbed to a giddy height.
  • Lightheartedly silly, or joyfully elated.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
    • , title= , chapter=2 citation , passage=Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.}}
    The boy was giddy when he opened his birthday presents.
  • (archaic) Frivolous, impulsive, inconsistent, changeable.
  • * 1599 ,
    • In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it, for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.
  • * 1784 , , Tirocinium; or, A Review of Schools
    • Young heads are giddy and young hearts are warm,
    And make mistakes for manhood to reform.

    Synonyms

    * dizzy

    Derived terms

    * giddiness

    See also

    * vertiginous

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To make dizzy or unsteady.
  • To reel; to whirl.
    • (Chapman)

    dizzy

    English

    Alternative forms

    * dizzie (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Having a sensation of whirling, with a tendency to fall; giddy; feeling unbalanced or lightheaded.
    • I stood up too fast and felt dizzy .
  • * Drayton
    • Alas! his brain was dizzy .
  • Producing giddiness.
    • We climbed to a dizzy height.
  • * Macaulay
    • To climb from the brink of Fleet Ditch by a dizzy ladder.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IX
    • ...faintly from the valley far below came an unmistakable sound which brought me to my feet, trembling with excitement, to peer eagerly downward from my dizzy ledge.
  • empty-headed, scatterbrained or frivolous
    • My new secretary is a dizzy blonde.
  • * Milton
    • the dizzy multitude

    Derived terms

    * dizzily * dizziness * dizzyingly

    Verb

  • To make dizzy, to bewilder.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.161:
    • Let me have this violence and compulsion removed, there is nothing that, in my seeming, doth more bastardise and dizzie a wel-borne and gentle nature.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • If the jangling of thy bells had not dizzied thy understanding.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=September 7, author=Dominic Fifield, work=The Guardian
    • , title= England start World Cup campaign with five-goal romp against Moldova , passage=So ramshackle was the locals' attempt at defence that, with energetic wingers pouring into the space behind panicked full-backs and centre-halves dizzied by England's movement, it was cruel to behold at times. The contest did not extend beyond the half-hour mark.}}