I. shy 1 /ʃaɪ/ BrE AmE adjective ( comparative shyer , superlative shyest )
[ Word Family: verb : ↑ shy ; noun : ↑ shyness ; adverb : ↑ shyly ; adjective : ↑ shy ]
[ Language: Old English ; Origin: sceoh ]
1 . nervous and embarrassed about meeting and speaking to other people, especially people you do not know:
He was a quiet shy man.
shy with
She was very shy with strangers.
a shy smile
As a teenager, I was painfully shy (=extremely shy) .
shy to do something
He was too shy to come and sit by me in class.
go all shy British English (=to suddenly become very shy)
Oh, have you gone all shy, Jenny?
2 . somebody is not shy about (doing) something used to emphasize that someone is very willing to do something or get involved with something:
John has strong opinions and he’s not shy about sharing them.
3 . unwilling to do something or get involved in something
be shy about/of (doing) something
Employees are urged not to be shy about reporting incidents of sexual harassment.
4 . be shy (of something) especially American English to have less than a particular amount of something:
The Democrats are three votes shy of a majority.
Jessica died Monday. She was one week shy of her 13th birthday.
5 . used to say that someone does not like something and therefore tries to avoid it:
Although publicity-shy, he recently agreed to be interviewed.
⇨ ↑ camera-shy , ↑ work-shy
6 . shy animals get frightened easily and are unwilling to come near people SYN timid :
Deer are shy creatures.
—shyly adverb :
He grinned shyly.
—shyness noun [uncountable] :
I overcame my shyness.
⇨ fight shy of (doing) something at ↑ fight 1 (22), ⇨ once bitten, twice shy at ↑ bite 1 (14)
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ bashful shy and not willing to say very much
▪ self-conscious worried and embarrassed about what you look like or what other people think of you
▪ timid not brave or confident
▪ reserved not liking to express your emotions or talk about your problems
▪ introverted thinking a lot about your own interests, problems etc, and not liking to be with other people
▪ withdrawn quiet and not wanting to talk to other people, especially because you are unhappy
▪ antisocial not liking to meet people and talk to them
▪ retiring formal not wanting to be with other people
II. shy 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle shied , present participle shying , third person singular shies ) [intransitive]
[ Word Family: verb : ↑ shy ; noun : ↑ shyness ; adverb : ↑ shyly ; adjective : ↑ shy ]
if a horse shies, it makes a sudden movement away from something because it is frightened:
The horse shied, throwing Darrel from his saddle.
shy away from something phrasal verb
to avoid doing or dealing with something because you are not confident enough or you are worried or nervous about it:
They criticized the leadership, but shied away from a direct challenge.
III. shy 3 BrE AmE
⇨ ↑ coconut shy