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SHYNESS
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A feeling of fear of embarrassment
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("shyness" is a kind of...):
timidity; timidness; timorousness (fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions)
Derivation:
shy (lacking self-confidence)
Context examples:
There had been music, singing, talking, laughing, all that was most agreeable; charming manners in Captain Wentworth, no shyness or reserve; they seemed all to know each other perfectly, and he was coming the very next morning to shoot with Charles.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
In addition to what has been already said of Catherine Morland's personal and mental endowments, when about to be launched into all the difficulties and dangers of a six weeks' residence in Bath, it may be stated, for the reader's more certain information, lest the following pages should otherwise fail of giving any idea of what her character is meant to be, that her heart was affectionate; her disposition cheerful and open, without conceit or affectation of any kind—her manners just removed from the awkwardness and shyness of a girl; her person pleasing, and, when in good looks, pretty—and her mind about as ignorant and uninformed as the female mind at seventeen usually is.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Little Em'ly had overcome her shyness, and was sitting by my side upon the lowest and least of the lockers, which was just large enough for us two, and just fitted into the chimney corner.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
She could not be silent when such points were introduced, and she had neither shyness nor reserve in their discussion.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
But they were too much used to company and praise to have anything like natural shyness; and their confidence increasing from their cousin's total want of it, they were soon able to take a full survey of her face and her frock in easy indifference.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
On the stairs were a troop of little boys and girls, whose eagerness for their cousin's appearance would not allow them to wait in the drawing-room, and whose shyness, as they had not seen her for a twelvemonth, prevented their coming lower.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
"That's my good girl. You do try to fight off your shyness, and I love you for it. Fighting faults isn't easy, as I know, and a cheery word kind of gives a lift. Thank you, Mother," And Jo gave the thin cheek a grateful kiss, more precious to Mrs. March than if it had given back the rosy roundness of her youth.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He received the kindest welcome from her; and shyness, coldness, reserve could not stand against such a reception.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
As for any society in Portsmouth, that could at all make amends for deficiencies at home, there were none within the circle of her father's and mother's acquaintance to afford her the smallest satisfaction: she saw nobody in whose favour she could wish to overcome her own shyness and reserve.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
While Laurie listlessly watched the procession of priests under their canopies, white-veiled nuns bearing lighted tapers, and some brotherhood in blue chanting as they walked, Amy watched him, and felt a new sort of shyness steal over her, for he was changed, and she could not find the merry-faced boy she left in the moody-looking man beside her.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
