Adjective

(er)

Nervous and excited.

Adjective

(en adjective)

(figuratively, uncommon) Nervous, tense, jumpy.

* {{quote-book, year=1949, author=Irwin Shaw, title=The Young Lions citation

, passage=Everyone else Christian had had anything to do with, ever since the bad night outside Alexandria, had seemed to be overwound , jumpy, bitter, hysterical, overtired...}}

* {{quote-book, year=1957, author=Richard Hoggart, title=The Uses Of Literacy citation

, passage=He has left his class, at least in spirit, by being in certain ways unusual; and he is still unusual in another class, too tense and overwound .}}

* {{quote-book, year=2004, author=Emma Holly, title=Strange Attractions, isbn=0-425-19821-9 citation

, passage=Eric's boss had accused him more than once of being a worrier, but Eric hadn't felt this overwound since his previous employer's stock underwent a dot-bomb implosion.}}

* {{quote-news, year=2004, date=October 6, author=Sidney Blumenthal, title=The master of Washington vs. the fox, work=Salon.com citation

, passage=He [Cheney] could only exist with a chief executive self-absorbed in his resentments, narrow in experience and intellectual scope, and who does not hold his vice president accountable; an incompetent national security advisor, overwound in her eagerness to please; and a secretary of state who never presses his advantages but accepts his internal defeats, playing the good soldier.}}