shy
Part of speech: adj
verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: ball-games
games
government
hobbies
lifestyle
politics
soccer
sports
Etymology: From Middle English shy (“shy”), from Old English sċēoh (“shy”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeuh (“shy, fearful”), from Proto-Germanic *skeuhaz (“shy, fearful”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian skjou (“shy”), Dutch schuw (“shy”), German scheu (“shy”), Danish sky (“shy”).
Etymology tree
Middle English shy
English shy
Inflected forms:
form: shier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: shyer
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more shy
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: shiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: shyest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most shy
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: shies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: shying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: shied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: shied
pos: verb
tags: past
form: shies
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Easily frightened; timid.
pos: adj
examples: The horses of the army, and those of the royal stables, having been daily led before me, were no longer shy, but would come up to my very feet without starting.
gloss: Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach.
pos: adj
examples: He is very shy with strangers.
VVhat makes you ſo ſhy of late, my good Friend? There's no Body loves you better than I, nor has taken more Pains in your Affairs: […]
Graham Norton: But the people coming up to you now, like the Americans, well, you know, the Americans, they're not shy, the Americans. / Maggie Smith: No. Well, no but I don't go anywhere where really they can get at me. It's usually in museums and art galleries and things, so that limits things. I keep away from there, and Harrod's I don't go near.
gloss: Cautious; wary; suspicious.
pos: adj
examples: We grant, although he had much wit, / H' was very shy of using it; / As being loth to wear it out, / And therefore bore it not about,
Princes are, by wisdom of state, somewhat shy of their successors.
[…] I am very ſhy of building any thing of moment upon foundations that I eſteem ſo unſure, […]
gloss: Short, insufficient or less than.
pos: adj
tags: informal
examples: By our count your shipment came up two shy of the bill of lading amount.
It is just shy of a mile from here to their house.
The year I turned 26, as the head of my own brokerage firm, I made $49 million, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.
United move seventh - still six points off a Champions League place and a massive 16 shy of the lead held by rivals Manchester City.
gloss: Less likely to reveal whom they will vote for than average, chiefly in the context of the collective effect this has on polling accuracy.
pos: adj
tags: UK
US
examples: Pollsters need to remember the shy Tory factor.
gloss: To avoid due to caution, embarrassment or timidness.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Courts might tend to shy from limiting Congress under such a vague standard.
gloss: To jump back in fear.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The horse shied at the unexpected approach of a motor vehicle.
gloss: To throw sideways with a jerk; to fling.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to shy a stone
shy a slipper
Then two or three boys laughed and sneered, and a big brutal fellow, who was standing in the middle of the room, picked up a slipper, and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him a snivelling young shaver.
"I was thinking, sir," I answered, "that I should like to shy the Diamond into the quicksand, and settle the question in that way."
gloss: To throw a ball with two hands above the head, especially when it has crossed the side lines in a football (soccer) match.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
intransitive
transitive
gloss: To hit the ball back into play from the sidelines in a shinty match.
pos: verb
tags: Scotland
gloss: An act of throwing.
pos: noun
examples: Foker discharged a prodigious bouquet at her, and even Smirke made a feeble shy with a rose, and blushed dreadfully when it fell into the pit
If Lord Brougham gets a stone in his hand, he must, it seems, have a shy at somebody.
The game had started. A man was chasing the ball, it went out for a shy.
gloss: A place for throwing.
pos: noun
examples: coconut shy
gloss: A sudden start aside, as by a horse.
pos: noun
gloss: In the Eton College wall game, a point scored by lifting the ball against the wall in the calx.
pos: noun
gloss: A throw-in from the sidelines, using two hands above the head.
pos: noun
tags: Scotland
gloss: In shinty, the act of tossing the ball above the head and hitting it with the shaft of the caman to bring it back into play after it has been hit out of the field.
pos: noun
tags: Scotland
gloss: A gibe; a sneer.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
Synonyms: abashed
backward
bashful
bookish
coy
distant
embarrassed
hesitant
mousy
unassertive
passive
quiet
reclusive
retiring
shamefast
sheep-faced
sheepish
shy
submissive
timid
uncommunicative
Antonyms: audacious
barefaced
bold
brazen
impudent
immodest
unblushing
confident
Related words: bashful
reserved
timid
demure
coy
wouldn't say boo to a goose
shyness
shy person
cautious
Derived words: bird-shy
book-shy
boy-shy
call-shy
camera-shy
car-shy
cat-shy
cockshy
cover-shy
crate shy of a load
few cards shy of a full deck
fight shy
fight shy of
girl-shy
gun-shy
gunshy
hand-shy
head-shy
hood-shy
look shy
love-shy
man-shy
mouse-shy
noise-shy
nonshy
one card shy of a full deck
pee-shy
people-shy
piss shy
shily
-shy
shy bairns get nowt
shy bairns get noot
shybie
shy bladder
shyful
shy greenhood
shyish
shyly
shyness
shyshark
shyster
shy Tory
water-shy
woman-shy
workshy
work-shy
shy away from
coconut shy
have a shy
Translations: