insecure

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   lacking self-confidence or assurance

   an insecure person lacking mental stability

2. 2
   adj

   lacking in security or safety

   Their fortune was increasingly insecure.

3. 3
   adj

   Not secure.

   1927, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados Mysteries It was, as Carrados explained, entirely his own preposterous fault. Nothing but curiosity about the size of the room had impelled him to touch the walls, and the picture, having a weak cord or an insecure nail ... had it not brought something else down in its fall?

4. 4
   adj

   Not comfortable or confident in oneself or in certain situations.

   He's a nice guy and all, but seems to be rather insecure around other people.

5. 5
   adj

   not firm or firmly fixed

6. 6
   adj

   not safe from attack

Etymology

From in- + secure, or from Medieval Latin insēcūrus, itself from in- (“in-, un-, non-”) + sēcūrus (“safe, certain”). Piecewise doublet of unsecure and unsure.