Shy Meaning
/ʃaɪ/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjEasily frightened; timid.
adjReserved; disinclined to familiar approach.
Sentence Examples
Don't be shy about talking to the teacher; if you don't understand, use some initiative!
Generally, Japanese people are shy.
He is not exactly the shy and retiring type.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new student was very ____ and did not want to speak in front of the class.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ kitten hid behind the sofa when the visitors arrived, only coming out once the house was quiet.
Word Origin & History
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”). Etymology tree Middle English shy English shy
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV):
"VVhat makes you ſo ſhy of late, my good Friend? There's no Body loves you better than I, nor has taken more Pains in your Affairs: […]"
— 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “An Account of the Conference between Mrs. Bull and Don Diego Dismallo”, in John Bull in His Senses: Being the Second Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], Edinburgh: […] James Watson, […], →OCLC, page 25:
"Graham Norton: But the people coming up to you now, like the Americans, well, you know, the Americans, they're not shy, the Americans. / Maggie Smith: No. Well, no but I don't go anywhere where really they can get at me. It's usually in museums and art galleries and things, so that limits things. I keep away from there, and Harrod's I don't go near."
— 2015 October 30, The Graham Norton Show, season 18, episode 6:
"We grant, although he had much wit, / H' was very shy of using it; / As being loth to wear it out, / And therefore bore it not about,"
— 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “. Canto I.”, in Hudibras, London; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
"Princes are, by wisdom of state, somewhat shy of their successors."
— 1641, Henry Wotton, The Characters of Robert Devereux and George Villiers:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new student was very ____ and did not want to speak in front of the class.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ kitten hid behind the sofa when the visitors arrived, only coming out once the house was quiet.