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Uptight vs Apprehensive - What's the difference?

uptight | apprehensive |

As adjectives the difference between uptight and apprehensive

is that uptight is (colloquial) excessively concerned with rules and order while apprehensive is .

As a noun uptight

is (colloquial) an uptight person.

uptight

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (colloquial) Excessively concerned with rules and order.
    • Don't be so uptight ! You won't go to jail for crossing the street against the light.
  • (colloquial) Sexually repressed.
    • He came from a very uptight religious background, but you wouldn't know that now!
  • (colloquial) Unfriendly and rude.
  • * 1987 , :
    • Withnail: Just because the best tailoring you’ve ever seen is above your fucking appendix doesn’t mean anything.
    Danny: Don’t get uptight with me, man.

    See also

    * anal retentive

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (colloquial) An uptight person.

    • apprehensive

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Anticipating something with anxiety or fear.
  • * 1719 ,
    • this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night on that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of the lions and tigers; at least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
  • Perceptive; quick to learn; intelligent; capable of grasping with the mind or intellect.
  • * 1670 ,
    • More fond of Miracles, than apprehensive of Truth.

    Derived terms

    * apprehensively