Fidget — A Vocabulary Story
The Longest Seven Minutes
Davina had been sitting in the waiting room for seven minutes. She knew this because she'd counted the ceiling tiles three times, read the fire exit sign in four different accents, and was now working through her sixth attempt at keeping completely, perfectly still.
It wasn't going well.
She couldn't help but fidget.
Fidget means to make small movements, especially of the hands and feet, through nervousness or impatience.
Davina's right foot had developed its own independent agenda, tapping a rhythm against the floor that she couldn't quite stop. Her fingers found the zip on her coat pocket — zip up, zip down, zip up, zip down. She shifted in her chair. She shifted back.
This was the day of Davina's Grade 5 violin audition, and the waiting room outside the exam hall had all the calming energy of a dentist's office during a thunderstorm.
The boy next to her — headphones round his neck, sheet music rolled into a tight tube — was clearly fighting the same battle. He was fidgeting just as much: fingers drumming soundlessly on his knee, heel bouncing, lips pressing together then parting.
There was something almost companionable about it — two people quietly falling apart and fidgeting in adjacent chairs.
She unzipped her pocket. Zipped it up again.
The door opened.
"Davina Coles?"
She stood up straight, tucked the fidget away somewhere deep, and walked in.
The violin felt steady in her hands.
Word Definition
fidget
meaning
to make small movements, especially of the hands and feet, through nervousness or impatience
synonyms
squirm · twitch · wiggle · toss · jerk
antonyms
still · relax · rest
example sentence
The child began to fidget in his seat during the long ceremony.