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Unsteady vs Giddy - What's the difference?

unsteady | giddy | Related terms |

Unsteady is a related term of giddy.


As adjectives the difference between unsteady and giddy

is that unsteady is not held firmly in position, physically unstable while giddy is dizzy, feeling dizzy or unsteady and as if about to fall down.

As verbs the difference between unsteady and giddy

is that unsteady is to render unsteady, removing balance while giddy is (obsolete|transitive) to make dizzy or unsteady.

unsteady

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Not held firmly in position, physically unstable.
  • :
  • *
  • *:"Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins," remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day:"
  • Noted for lack of regularity or uniformity.
  • Inconstant in purpose, or volatile in behavior.

    • Synonyms

    * (not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over) precarious, rickety, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly

    Antonyms

    * steady

    Verb

  • To render unsteady, removing balance.

    • 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)