jitter
/ˈdʒɪtə
/informal
noun
1 (jitters) Feelings of extreme nervousness: a bout of the jitters...
- As far as opening nights go, there were no signs of jitters or stage fright.
- Of course, they would be nervous with new-job jitters.
- The book addresses subjects from exam-eve tensions to jitters before making a business presentation and everyday anxieties.
2 [mass noun] Slight irregular movement, variation, or unsteadiness, especially in an electrical signal or electronic device: picture jitter...
- Not once did I experience any sort of mouse jitter or discrepancies in movement.
- The picture also has some jitter, but I was so distracted by the streaking that I didn't notice whether it persisted through the entire run time.
- In either case, the repeater must reduce the amount of jitter in its outgoing signal to ensure that downstream devices can recover it error-free.
verb
1 [no object] Act nervously: an anxious student who jittered at any provocation...
- The mage was jittering nervously as Lushya simply stood there dumbfounded.
- She jittered nervously as she waited for it to show up.
- Rycluse jittered nervously as he watched the onslaught of an attack.
2(Of a signal or device) suffer from jitter: the episode is only available as a jittering videotape version...
- ‘Maybe its Camera jitters, maybe she's having second thoughts about the Harry Potter movie ’, James suggested as Tash shook her head.
- Plus, there is a weird rippling / jittering problem with the location graphics that I found extremely annoying.
- The panels had stopped jittering and a screen display in the center went alight.
Origin
1920s: of unknown origin.