Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Shy

Shy (shī), a. [Compar. Shier (-ẽr) or Shyer; superl. Shiest or Shyest.] [OE. schey, skey, sceouh, AS. sceóh; akin to Dan. sky, Sw. skygg, D. schuw, MHG. schiech, G. scheu, OHG. sciuhen to be or make timid. Cf. Eschew.] 1. Easily frightened; timid; as, a shy bird.

The horses of the army . . . were no longer shy, but would come up to my very feet without starting. Swift.

2. Reserved; coy; disinclined to familiar approach.

What makes you so shy, my good friend? There's nobody loves you better than I. Arbuthnot.

The embarrassed look of shy distress And maidenly shamefacedness. Wordsworth.

3. Cautious; wary; suspicious.

I am very shy of using corrosive liquors in the preparation of medicines. Boyle.

Princes are, by wisdom of state, somewhat shy of thier successors. Sir H. Wotton.

To fight shy. See under Fight, v. i.

Shy, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Shied; p. pr. & vb. n. Shying.] [From Shy, a.] To start suddenly aside through fright or suspicion; — said especially of horses.

Shy, v. t. To throw sidewise with a jerk; to fling; as, to shy a stone; to shy a slipper. T. Hughes.

Shy, n. 1. A sudden start aside, as by a horse.

2. A side throw; a throw; a fling. Thackeray.

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

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.