Backward vs Shy - What's the difference?
backward | shy | Synonyms |
(of motion) Pertaining to the direction towards the back.
(of motion) Pertaining to the direction reverse of normal.
Reluctant or unable to advance.
* 1919 ,
* Don't be backward in suggesting story ideas to local media but always think of the wants, needs and desires of their readers when selling-in story ideas.[http://www.mortgagemagazine.com.au/detail_article.cfm?articleID=364]
Of a culture considered undeveloped or unsophisticated.
* Most cruelly, the immediate security interests of the United States and the states surrounding Somalia are now to keep it a failed state, to prevent Islamists from consolidating even a weak state centered on Mogadishu. The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a backward corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda. [http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1851044]
Pertaining to a thought or value that is considered outdated.
* Replace the morbid, bankrupting, backward idea of superpower domination: Weapons dismantled. Global warming reversed. Perhaps, in time, overpopulation, poverty, starvation, ignorance and disease all resolved. Thus, moral determination combined with 21st Century science, ecology and social initiatives will make possible a resonant fulfillment of our American Revolution [http://www.counterpunch.org/bice01042003.html]
(cricket) On that part of the field behind the batsman's popping crease.
(cricket) Further behind the batsman's popping crease than something else.
(obsolete) Unwilling; averse; reluctant.
* Alexander Pope
Slow to apprehend; having difficulties in learning.
Late or behindhand.
(obsolete) Already past or gone; bygone.
* Byron
(of motion) In the direction towards the back; backwards
Toward, or in, past time or events; ago.
* John Locke
By way of reflection; reflexively.
From a better to a worse state, as from honor to shame, from religion to sin.
* Dryden
The state behind or past.
* Shakespeare
Easily frightened; timid.
* Jonathan Swift
Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach.
* Arbuthnot
Cautious; wary; suspicious.
* Boyle
* Sir H. Wotton
Short, insufficient or less than.
Embarrassed.
To avoid due to timidness or caution.
To jump back in fear.
to throw sideways with a jerk; to fling
An act of throwing.
* Punch
* 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 55:
A place for throwing.
A sudden start aside, as by a horse.
In the Eton College wall game, a point scored by lifting the ball against the wall in the calx.
As adjectives the difference between backward and shy
is that backward is pertaining to the direction towards the back while shy is easily frightened; timid.As nouns the difference between backward and shy
is that backward is the state behind or past while shy is an act of throwing.As an adverb backward
is in the direction towards the back; backwards.As a verb shy is
to avoid due to timidness or caution.backward
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- They left without a backward glance.
- The occasional backward movement of planets is evidence they revolve around the sun.
- Then her eyes, always alert for the affairs of her kitchen, fell on some action of the Chinese cook which aroused her violent disapproval. She turned on him with a torrent of abuse. The Chink was not backward to defend himself, and a very lively quarrel ensued.
- For wiser brutes were backward to be slaves.
- a backward child
- a backward season
- and flies unconscious o'er each backward year
Synonyms
* (in reverse direction) retrograde * (of an undeveloped culture) third world * backwards, fogyish, old-fashioned, antiquated, antediluvian, unprogressive, retrograde, outdated, parachronistic, out of dateAntonyms
* (of an undeveloped culture) forward * (of an outdated thought) progressiveAdverb
(en adverb)- to walk or ride backward'''; to throw the arms '''backward
- some reigns backward
- The work went backward .
Synonyms
* backwardsAntonyms
* forward, forwardsNoun
- In the dark backward and abysm of time.
Anagrams
*shy
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- The horses of the army were no longer shy , but would come up to my very feet without starting.
- He is very shy with strangers.
- What makes you so shy , my good friend? There's nobody loves you better than I.
- I am very shy of using corrosive liquors in the preparation of medicines.
- Princes are, by wisdom of state, somewhat shy of their successors.
- By our count your shipment came up two shy of the bill of lading amount.
- It is just shy of a mile from here to their house.
See also
* bashful * reserved * timid * demure * coyUsage notes
* Often used in combination with a noun to produce an adjective or adjectival phrase. * Adjectives are usually applicable to animals (leash-shy'' "shy of leashes" or ''head shy "shy of contact around the head" (of horses)) or to children.Synonyms
* See alsoAntonyms
* brazen * bold * audaciousDerived terms
(terms derived using shy as suffix) * -shy * bird-shy * boy-shy * car-shy * cat-shy * camera-shy * cover-shy * girl-shy * gun-shy * hand-shy * man-shy * mouse-shy * noise-shy * people-shy * water-shy * woman-shy * work-shyVerb
- I shy away from investment opportunities I don't understand.
- The horse shied''' away from the rider, which startled him so much he '''shied away from the horse.
- to shy''' a stone; to '''shy a slipper
Noun
(shies)- (Thackeray)
- If Lord Brougham gets a stone in his hand, he must, it seems, have a shy at somebody.
- The game had started. A man was chasing the ball, it went out for a shy .
- coconut shy