Etymology

Abbreviation of EnglishCategory:Translingual terms derived from English#SHY ShawiyaCategory:Translingual abbreviations#SHY.

Symbol

shyCategory:Translingual lemmas#SHYCategory:Translingual symbols#SHYCategory:Translingual terms with redundant script codes#SHYCategory:Translingual entries with incorrect language header#SHYCategory:Pages with entries#SHYCategory:Pages with 2 entries#SHY

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3Category:ISO 639-3 language code for Tachawit. The native name for the Shawiya language.

See also

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Tachawit terms

Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#SHYCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#SHY shy (“shy”), from Old EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Old English#SHYCategory:English terms derived from Old English#SHY sċēoh (“shy”), from Proto-West GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic#SHYCategory:English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#SHY *skeuh (“shy, fearful”), from Proto-GermanicCategory:English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic#SHYCategory:English terms derived from Proto-Germanic#SHY *skeuhaz (“shy, fearful”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian skjou (“shy”), Dutch schuw (“shy”), German scheu (“shy”), Danish sky (“shy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃaɪ/Category:English 1-syllable words#SHYCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#SHY

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#SHY
• Rhymes: -aɪCategory:Rhymes:English/aɪ#SHYCategory:Rhymes:English/aɪ/1 syllable#SHY
• Homophone: Chi (Chicago)Category:English terms with homophones#SHY

Adjective

shy (comparative shier or shyer or more shy, superlative shiest or shyest or most shy)Category:English lemmas#SHYCategory:English adjectives#SHYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SHYCategory:Pages with entries#SHYCategory:Pages with 2 entries#SHY

1. Easily frightened; timid.

   Antonyms: bold, brave, confident, courageous, adventurous, fearless, unshy

   • 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):

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

2. Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:shy

   Antonyms: audacious, bold, cheeky, brazen, gregarious, outgoing, confident, forwardCategory:English links with manual fragments#SHY, unshy

   He is very shy with strangers.Category:English terms with usage examples#SHY

   • 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:

     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: […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

   • 2015 October 30, The Graham Norton Show, season 18, episode 6:

     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.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

3. Cautious; wary; suspicious.
   • 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:

     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,

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

   • 1641, Henry Wotton, The Characters of Robert Devereux and George Villiers:

     Princes are, by wisdom of state, somewhat shy of their successors.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 1661, Robert Boyle, “A Proemial Essay, wherein, with Some Considerations Touching Experimental Essays in General, is Interwoven such an Introduction to All Those Written by the Author, as is Necessary to be Perus’d for the Better Understanding of Them”, in Certain Physiological Essays and Other Tracts; […], 2nd edition, London: […] Henry Herringman […], published 1669, →OCLC, page 33:

     […] I am very ſhy of building any thing of moment upon foundations that I eſteem ſo unſure, […]

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

4. (informalCategory:English informal terms#SHY) Short, insufficient or less than.

   By our count your shipment came up two shy of the bill of lading amount.Category:English terms with usage examples#SHY

   It is just shy of a mile from here to their house.Category:English terms with usage examples#SHY

   • 2013, Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street, spoken by Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio):

     The year I turned 26, as the head of my own brokerage firm, I made $49 million, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

   • 2018 December 1, Tom Rostance, “Southampton 2 – 2 Manchester United”, in BBC Sport‎:

     United move seventh - still six points off a Champions League place and a massive 16 shy of the lead held by rivals Manchester City.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

5. (UKCategory:British English#SHY, USCategory:American English#SHY, politicsCategory:en:Politics#SHY, of a voter) Less likely to reveal whom they will vote for than average, chiefly in the context of the collective effect this has on polling accuracy.

   Pollsters need to remember the shy Tory factor.Category:English terms with usage examples#SHY

Verb

shy (third-person singular simple present shies, present participle shying, simple past and past participle shied)Category:English lemmas#SHYCategory:English verbs#SHYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SHYCategory:Pages with entries#SHYCategory:Pages with 2 entries#SHY

1. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#SHY) To avoid due to caution, embarrassment or timidness.

   Synonym: shy away

   • (Can we date this quote by Hearings, Reports and Prints of the Senate Committee on Government Operations and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)Category:Requests for date in English entries#SHY (page 172)

     Courts might tend to shy from limiting Congress under such a vague standard.

2. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#SHY) To jump back in fear.

   Synonyms: start, startle

   The horse shied at the unexpected approach of a motor vehicle.Category:English terms with usage examples#SHY

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#SHY) To throw sideways with a jerk; to fling.

   Synonyms: bowl; see also Thesaurus:throw

   to shy a stoneCategory:English terms with usage examples#SHY

   shy a slipperCategory:English terms with usage examples#SHY

   • 1857, [Thomas Hughes], “How the Tide Turned”, in Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, part II, page 248:

     Then two or three boys laughed and sneered, and a big brutal fellow, who was standing in the middle of the room, picked up a slipper, and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him a snivelling young shaver.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

   • 1868 January 4 – June 6, [William] Wilkie Collins, “First Period. The Loss of the Diamond (1848). […]”, in The Moonstone. A Romance. […], volume I, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], published 1868, →OCLC, chapter VI, page 78:

     "I was thinking, sir," I answered, "that I should like to shy the Diamond into the quicksand, and settle the question in that way."

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

4. (ScotlandCategory:Scottish English#SHY, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#SHY, intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#SHY) To throw a ball with two hands above the head, especially when it has crossed the side lines in a football (soccer) match.
5. (ScotlandCategory:Scottish English#SHY) To hit the ball back into play from the sidelines in a shinty match.

Noun

shy (plural shies)Category:English lemmas#SHYCategory:English nouns#SHYCategory:English countable nouns#SHYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#SHYCategory:Pages with entries#SHYCategory:Pages with 2 entries#SHY

1. An act of throwing.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Foker discharged a prodigious bouquet at her, and even Smirke made a feeble shy with a rose, and blushed dreadfully when it fell into the pit

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

   • 1846, Punch, volume 10:

     If Lord Brougham gets a stone in his hand, he must, it seems, have a shy at somebody.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
   • 2008, James Kelman, Kieron Smith, Boy, Penguin, published 2009, page 55:

     The game had started. A man was chasing the ball, it went out for a shy.

     Category:English terms with quotations#SHY

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
2. A place for throwing.

   coconut shyCategory:English terms with usage examples#SHY

3. A sudden start aside, as by a horse.
4. In the Eton College wall game, a point scored by lifting the ball against the wall in the calx.
5. (ScotlandCategory:Scottish English#SHY, soccerCategory:en:Football (soccer)#SHY) A throw-in from the sidelines, using two hands above the head.
6. (ScotlandCategory:Scottish English#SHY) In shinty, the act of tossing the ball above the head and hitting it with the shaft of the caman to bring it back into play after it has been hit out of the field.
7. (archaicCategory:English terms with archaic senses#SHY) A gibe; a sneer.

Anagrams

• Hys, hys, syh