shy

Meanings

Adjective

• Easily frightened; timid.
• Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach.
• Cautious; wary; suspicious.
• Short, insufficient or less than.
• Embarrassed.

Verb

• To avoid due to caution or timidness.
• To jump back in fear.
• To throw sideways with a jerk; to fling.

Noun

• An act of throwing.
• A place for throwing.
• A sudden start aside, as by a horse.
• In the Eton College wall game, a point scored by lifting the ball against the wall in the calx.

Origin

• 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").