SHY OF

Avoidance

Avoid, shun; steer clear of, keep clear of; fight shy of; keep one's distance, keep at a respectful distance; keep out of the way, get out of the way; evade, elude, turn away from; set one's face against; (oppose); deny oneself.

Adjective: unsought, unattempted; avoiding; Verb: neutral, shy of; (unwilling); elusive, evasive; fugitive, runaway; shy, wild.

Caution

Careful, heedful; cautelous, stealthy, chary, shy of, circumspect, prudent, discreet, politic; sure-footed; (skillful).

Dislike

Adjective: disliking; Verb: averse from, loathe, loathe to, loth, adverse; shy of, sick of, out of conceit with; disinclined; heartsick, dogsick; queasy.

Incredulity

Adjective: incredulous, skeptical, unbelieving, inconvincible; hard of belief, shy of belief, disposed to doubt, indisposed to believe; suspicious, scrupulous, distrustful, cynical;

Unwillingness

Adjective: unwilling; not in the vein, loth, loath, shy of, disinclined, indisposed, averse, reluctant, not content; adverse; (opposed); laggard, backward, remiss, slack, slow to; indifferent; scrupulous; squeamish; (fastidious); repugnant; (dislike); restiff, restive; demurring; Verb: unconsenting; (refusing); involuntary.

Crosswords: SHY OF

Two months shy of four years. (Jackie Brown; writing credit: Quentin Tarantino)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• About 3 Bricks Shy of a Load: A Highly Irregular Lowdown on the Year the Pittsburgh Steelers Were Super but Missed the Bowl (reference)

• Just Shy of Harmony (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• A Few Oats Shy of a Haggis [EXPLICIT LYRICS] (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

And he held out his hand to Sylvie, who had placed herself by me, looking a little shy of him.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Economic History

South Africa

In the 1999 elections, the ANC won 266 seats in the Assembly, one seat shy of a two-thirds majority and an increase of 14 seats from 1994; the DP won 38, the IFP 34, the NNP 28, the UDM 14, and other groups won the remaining 20. In 2000, the DP, NNP, and the Federal Alliance merged to form the Democratic Alliance. (references)

Philippines

Political uncertainties combined with a strong US$ combined to drive the peso to new lows in 2000. Days before the unexpected January 20, 2001 installation of President Macapagal-Arroyo, the peso had slipped precipitously to a new intra-day low just shy of P56/US$. Positive political sentiment and generally calm regional markets allowed the peso to strengthen, and the peso traded above the P48/US$ mark from mid-February to the first week of March. (references)

Political Economy

South Africa

As a result of the June 1999 elections, the African National Congress, which won 66.35 percent of the vote, now holds 266 Assembly seats, one shy of a two-thirds majority and an increase of 14 seats from 1994. The Democratic Party (DP) increased its support from 1.7 percent in 1994 to nearly 10 percent in 1999. With 38 Assembly seats, the DP assumed the mantle of official opposition. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "SHY OF": fight shy of ♦ fight shy of smth. ♦ shy of belief. Additional references.

Albanian

shmangem (circumvent, deflect, depart, deviate, diverge, dodge, duck, escape, eschew, fence, fend off, fight shy of, forbear, funk, give a wide berth, glance, jink, jump, keep one's distance, leapfrog, Miss, Parry, refrain, shirk, shun, sidestep, steer clear of, tergiversate, wander). (various references)

Arabic 

‏تهرب (avoidance, be truant, beg the question, evade, fight shy of, fly in the face of, get in, hedge, malinger, shirk, shun, sidestep, skulk, swing the lead), ‏تجنب (avert, avoid, avoidance, bypass, ditch, duck, eschew, eschewal, evade, evasion, fence, fight shy of, flee, get round, give a wide berth, hide, miss, obviate, outrun, parry, put off, save, shirk, shuffle, shun, shy, sidestep, steer clear of, waive). (various references)

Finnish

vierastaa jotakuta (be shy of), ihmisiä kartteleva (shy of people). (various references)

French

tout faire pour éviter de faire (fight shy of), éviter (fight shy of, shun). (various references)

Greek 

πολεμώ δειλά (fight shy of). (various references)

Hungarian

kitér vmi elől (to avoid, to fight shy of sg, to shirk), húzódozik vmitől (to boggle at sg, to fight shy of sg, to sugar). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

恥ずかしがる (to be abashed, to be bashful, to be shy of, to blush). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

はずかしがる (to be abashed, to be bashful, to be shy of, to blush). (various references)

Pig Latin

yshay ofay

Romanian

se feri (beware, duck, elude, eschew, fight shy of smth., forbear, guard, shun), nu avea încredere în (discount, distrust, fight shy of smth., mistrust). (various references)

Russian 

избегать кого-л. (fight shy of). (various references)

Spanish

esquivar (avoid, circumvent, dodge, duck, elude, fight shy of, fudge, shirk, shun, sidestep). (various references)

Swedish

undvika (avoid, avoided, dodge, eschew, evade, fight shy of, flank, flee, fudge, get out of, keep away from, keep off), dra sig undan (draw away, draw back, fight shy of, hold back). (various references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: foys, hoys.

-2 letters: foh, foy, hoy, ohs, shy, soy.

-3 letters: ho, of, oh, os, oy, sh, so, yo.

+2 letters: fogyish, shoofly.

+3 letters: fortyish, hayforks, haylofts, horsefly, housefly, oafishly, offishly.

+4 letters: foolishly, foppishly, forsythia, wolfishly.

+5 letters: forsythias, housewifey, hydrofoils, slothfully.