A fidgety, unsettled inability to rest or be still.
A fidgety, unsettled inability to rest or be still — often with discontent and a craving for change.
The diffuse, often objectless member: a fidgety unease coupled with discontent and a craving for activity or change. Unlike impatience it is usually not aimed at a specific awaited event — a general unease rather than irritation at a delay. Unlike eagerness, anticipation, or hope it lacks a clear positive object or expected payoff; unlike longing, which yearns toward a definite (if absent) object, restlessness often has no nameable goal — the itch for something, not for something in particular. Can describe the body, the mind, or a temperament.
rest (Old English ræste “repose, peace”) + -less “lacking.” Restless is attested late 14c. (“unable to rest, uneasy in mind”); the sense “stirring constantly, desirous of action” is from the late 15c.
A two-stage development: the passive “finding no rest, uneasy” (late 14c.) and the active “stirring constantly, desirous of action” (late 15c.); both senses persist. No reliable recent-generation shift.