shy
adjective /ʃaɪ/
/ʃaɪ/
(comparative shyer, superlative shyest)
Idioms - (of people) nervous or embarrassed about meeting and speaking to other people synonym timid
- He is not exactly the shy and retiring type.
- Don't be shy—come and say hello.
- She was too shy to ask anyone for help.
- As a teenager I was painfully shy.
- shy around/with somebody She's very shy with adults.
- a quiet, shy man
Extra ExamplesTopics Personal qualitiesb1, Feelingsb1- She was terribly shy around strangers.
- She went all shy and hid behind her mother.
- You don't have to be shy with me, you know.
- She felt suddenly shy as the large crowd fell silent.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- feel
- look
- …
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
- around
- of
- with
- …
- showing that somebody is nervous or embarrassed about meeting and speaking to other people
- a shy smile
- a shy grin/glance
- his shy demeanour/temperament
- (of animals) easily frightened and not willing to come near people
- The panda is a shy creature.
- [not before noun] (used especially in negative sentences) afraid of doing something or being involved in something
- shy of/about something The band has never been shy of publicity.
- shy of/about doing something He disliked her and had never been shy about saying so.
- [not before noun] shy (of something) (especially North American English, informal) not having quite the amount that is needed to be something or to reach a particular figure
- We are still two players shy (of a full team).
- He died before Christmas, only a month shy of his 90th birthday.
- The bill was just shy of $1 million.
- -shy(in compounds) avoiding or not liking the thing mentioned
- camera-shy (= not liking to be photographed)
- He's always been work-shy.
Word OriginOld English scēoh ‘(of a horse) easily frightened’, of Germanic origin; related to German scheuen ‘shun’, scheuchen ‘scare’; compare with eschew. The verb dates from the mid 17th cent.
Idioms
fight shy of something/of doing something
- to be unwilling to accept something or do something, and to try to avoid it
- Successive governments have fought shy of such measures.
once bitten, twice shy
- (saying) after an unpleasant experience you are careful to avoid something similar