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Shy vs Fear - What's the difference?

shy | fear |

As nouns the difference between shy and fear

is that shy is an act of throwing while fear is grass.

As an adjective shy

is easily frightened; timid.

As a verb shy

is to avoid due to timidness or caution.

shy

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Easily frightened; timid.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • The horses of the army were no longer shy , but would come up to my very feet without starting.
  • Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach.
  • He is very shy with strangers.
  • * Arbuthnot
  • What makes you so shy , my good friend? There's nobody loves you better than I.
  • Cautious; wary; suspicious.
  • * Boyle
  • I am very shy of using corrosive liquors in the preparation of medicines.
  • * Sir H. Wotton
  • Princes are, by wisdom of state, somewhat shy of their successors.
  • Short, insufficient or less than.
  • 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.
  • Embarrassed.
  • See also

    * bashful * reserved * timid * demure * coy

    Usage 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 also

    Antonyms

    * brazen * bold * audacious

    Derived 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-shy

    Verb

  • To avoid due to timidness or caution.
  • I shy away from investment opportunities I don't understand.
  • To jump back in fear.
  • The horse shied''' away from the rider, which startled him so much he '''shied away from the horse.
  • to throw sideways with a jerk; to fling
  • to shy''' a stone; to '''shy a slipper

    Noun

    (shies)
  • An act of throwing.
  • (Thackeray)
  • * Punch
  • If Lord Brougham gets a stone in his hand, he must, it seems, have a shy at somebody.
  • * 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, p. 55:
  • The game had started. A man was chasing the ball, it went out for a shy .
  • A place for throwing.
  • coconut shy
  • 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.
  • Derived terms

    * coconut shy

    fear

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) feer, fere, fer, from (etyl) . The verb is from (etyl) feren, from (etyl) , from the noun.

    Noun

  • (lb) A strong, uncontrollable, unpleasant emotion caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.}}
  • *
  • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear .
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police
  • (lb) A phobia, a sense of fear induced by something or someone.
  • *
  • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • (lb) Extreme veneration or awe, as toward a supreme being or deity.
  • * Bible, (w)
  • I will put my fear in their hearts.
  • * Bible, (Psalms)
  • I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
    Synonyms
    * , terror, fright * , anxiety, apprehension * (extreme veneration) awe, reverence, veneration * See also
    Derived terms
    * affear * fearful * fearless * fearmonger * fearnaught * fearsome * no fear

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause fear to; to frighten.
  • * :
  • Thenne the knyghte sayd to syre Gawayn / bynde thy wounde or thy blee chaunge / for thou bybledest al thy hors and thy fayre armes // For who someuer is hurte with this blade he shalle neuer be staunched of bledynge / Thenne ansuerd gawayn hit greueth me but lytyl / thy grete wordes shalle not feare me ne lasse my courage
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.
  • (label) To feel fear about (something); to be afraid of; to consider or expect with alarm.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • I greatly fear my money is not safe.
  • *
  • At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear —man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Mark Tran
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=1, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Denied an education by war , passage=One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools
  • (lb) To venerate; to feel awe towards.
  • (lb) Regret.
  • (lb) To be anxious or solicitous for.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children, thereforeI fear you.
  • (lb) To suspect; to doubt.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Fear you not her courage?
    Synonyms
    * be afraid of, be frightened of, be scared of, be terrorised/terrorized be * (venerate) be in awe of, revere, venerate
    Derived terms
    * fear not * God-fearing * never fear

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) fere, feore, from (etyl) . Related to (l).

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (dialectal) Able; capable; stout; strong; sound.
  • hale and fear

    Statistics

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