Bashful
uncomfortably diffident and easily embarrassed; shy; timid.
indicative of, accompanied by, or proceeding from bashfulness.
Historical Examples
The bashful girls sat in a little huddle, looking very much as if they were afraid of being laughed at.
Hope Mills Amanda M. Douglas
The man to be so bashful; the woman to want so much courting!
Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9) Samuel Richardson
And perhaps,’ with a bashful glance, ‘you wouldn’t mind seeing me up the street a short way, as I’m alone and unprotected.’
Madame Midas Fergus Hume
“Probably the presence of Stumpy made her bashful,” suggested Ned.
Frank Roscoe’s Secret Allen Chapman
Kenneth brought a bashful blonde youth with him, who instantly claimed the next dance.
Saturday’s Child Kathleen Norris
bashful or bold then, he will know how to make us seniors very unnecessary.
Essays, First Series Ralph Waldo Emerson
About the meanest critter thare iz now travelling around loose, on the breast ov the earth, iz a bashful hypokrite.
The Complete Works of Josh Billings Henry W. Shaw
“Oh, they are most beautiful,” replied she, with a bashful falling of her eyelids.
Roland Cashel Charles James Lever
The fire flamed up, and Jimmy, with a bashful and deprecatory “Gosh!”
Saturday’s Child Kathleen Norris
She hesitated in a funny, bashful manner which roused my interest.
Chance Joseph Conrad
adjective
disposed to attempt to avoid notice through shyness or modesty; diffident; timid
indicating or characterized by shyness or modesty
adj.
1540s, from baishen “to be filled with consternation or dismay” (mid-14c.), from Old French baissier “bring down, humiliate” (see abash). Related: Bashfully; bashfulness (1530s).
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