Word Direct Answers

What does "shy" mean?

Shy: Reserved; coy; disinclined to familiar approach. What makes you so shy, my good friend There's nobody loves you better than I. Arbuthnot. The embarrassed look of shy distress And maidenly shamefacedness. Wordsworth.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Cautious; wary; suspicious. I am very shy of using corrosive liquors in the preparation of medicines. Boyle. Princes are, by wisdom of state, somewhat shy of thier successors. Sir H. Wotton. To fight shy. See under Fight, v. i.
  2. 3.To start suddenly aside through fright or suspicion; -- said especially of horses.
  3. 4.To throw sidewise with a jerk; to fling; as, to shy a stone; to shy a slipper. T. Hughes.
  4. 5.A sudden start aside, as by a horse.
  5. 6.A side throw; a throw; a fling. Thackeray. If Lord Brougham gets a stone in his hand, he must, it seems, have a shy at somebody. Punch.

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