shy
adjectiveverbnouncommon in dialogue
- //ʃaɪ//
Easily frightened; timid.
adjective
- 1
Easily frightened; timid.
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.
- 2
Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach.
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.
- 3
Cautious; wary; suspicious.
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, […]
- 4
informalShort, insufficient or less than.
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.
- 5
Less likely to reveal whom they will vote for than average, chiefly in the context of the collective effect this has on polling accuracy.
Pollsters need to remember the shy Tory factor.
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”).
verb
- 1
To avoid due to caution, embarrassment or timidness.
Courts might tend to shy from limiting Congress under such a vague standard.
- 2
To jump back in fear.
The horse shied at the unexpected approach of a motor vehicle.
- 3
To throw sideways with a jerk; to fling.
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."
- 4
To throw a ball with two hands above the head, especially when it has crossed the side lines in a football (soccer) match.
- 5
To hit the ball back into play from the sidelines in a shinty match.
noun
- 1
An act of throwing.
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.
- 2
A place for throwing.
coconut shy
- 3
A sudden start aside, as by a horse.
- 4
In the Eton College wall game, a point scored by lifting the ball against the wall in the calx.
- 5
A throw-in from the sidelines, using two hands above the head.
- 6
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.
- 7
archaicA gibe; a sneer.
Forms
- plural
- shies
- comparative
- shier, shyer, more shy
- superlative
- shiest, shyest, most shy
- past tense
- shied
- past participle
- shied
- present participle
- shying
- third person singular
- shies