noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of one who shies or turns aside in fear.

   "Not that there is anything really inexplicable in these odd directions of childish fear, any more than in the unpredictable shyings of the horse."

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of shy form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms

diffidentinsufficientwaryabashedabout the bushafraid

Example

More examples

"Everyone keeps shying away from John."

Etymology

From shy + -ing.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.