panicky

From panic + -y.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpænɪki/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Hyphenation: pan‧ic‧ky
• Rhymes: -ænɪki, -ænɪːki

panicky (comparative more panicky, superlative most panicky)

1. In a state of panic.
   • 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:

     At six feet the panicky thought rushed into my mind, What if he will not run? Why, then I shall club him, came the answer. In my fear I had forgotten that I was there to get the bull instead of to make him run. And just then he gave a snort and a snarl and rushed at me.

   • 2022 November 1, Polly Toynbee, “Rishi Sunak’s only been in office for a few days – and the errors are already piling up”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Banning the king from Cop27 looks clumsy. News that Sunak could make a U-turn dash to Egypt having learned that Johnson may go looks panicky.

• inky cap