Library / English Dictionary

SHY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: shied    , shier    , shiest    , shyer    , shyest   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A quick throw

Example:

he gave the ball a shy to the first baseman

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("shy" is a kind of...):

throw (the act of throwing (propelling something with a rapid movement of the arm and wrist))

Derivation:

shy (throw quickly)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wary and distrustful; disposed to avoid persons or things

Example:

shy of strangers

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

wary (marked by keen caution and watchful prudence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking self-confidence

Example:

a very unsure young man

Synonyms:

diffident; shy; timid; unsure

Classified under:

Adjectives

Attribute:

confidence (a feeling of trust (in someone or something))

Derivation:

shyness (a feeling of fear of embarrassment)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Short

Example:

eleven is one shy of a dozen

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

deficient; insufficient (of a quantity not able to fulfill a need or requirement)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Throw quickly

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "shy" is one way to...):

throw (propel through the air)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

shy (a quick throw)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Start suddenly, as from fright

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "shy" is one way to...):

jump; start; startle (move or jump suddenly, as if in surprise or alarm)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Credits

 Context examples: 

They may be quiet and shy and have trouble fitting in.

(Klinefelter's Syndrome, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)

"Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

And then turning the conversation, he would have engaged her on some other subject, but her answers were so shy and reluctant that he could not advance in any.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He was shy, and disposed to abstraction; but the engaging mildness of her countenance, and gentleness of her manners, soon had their effect; and Anne was well repaid the first trouble of exertion.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Personally I felt shy and uncomfortable at this obsequious adoration, and I read the same feeling in the faces of Roxton and Summerlee, but Challenger expanded like a flower in the sun.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

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.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I studied her myself, and though it was I who maintained the conversation, I know that I was a bit shy, not quite self-possessed.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

In the past he had observed Lip-lip's persecution of White Fang; but at that time Lip-lip was another man's dog, and Mit-sah had never dared more than to shy an occasional stone at him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Her manners showed good sense and good breeding; they were neither shy nor affectedly open; and she seemed capable of being young, attractive, and at a ball without wanting to fix the attention of every man near her, and without exaggerated feelings of ecstatic delight or inconceivable vexation on every little trifling occurrence.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

She was not struck by any thing remarkably clever in Miss Smith's conversation, but she found her altogether very engaging—not inconveniently shy, not unwilling to talk—and yet so far from pushing, shewing so proper and becoming a deference, seeming so pleasantly grateful for being admitted to Hartfield, and so artlessly impressed by the appearance of every thing in so superior a style to what she had been used to, that she must have good sense, and deserve encouragement.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)