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Strange vs Shy - What's the difference?

strange | shy |

As a proper noun strange

is .

As an adjective shy is

easily frightened; timid.

As a verb shy is

to avoid due to timidness or caution.

As a noun shy is

an act of throwing.

strange

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Not normal; odd, unusual, surprising, out of the ordinary.
    • He thought it strange that his girlfriend wore shorts in the winter.
  • * Milton
    • Sated at length, erelong I might perceive / Strange alteration in me.
  • Unfamiliar, not yet part of one's experience.
    • I moved to a strange town when I was ten.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Here is the hand and seal of the duke; you know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is not strange to you.
  • * 1955 , edition, ISBN 0553249592, pages 48–49:
    • She's probably sitting there hoping a couple of strange detectives will drop in.
  • (physics) Having the quantum mechanical property of strangeness.
  • * 2004 Frank Close, Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction , Oxford, page 93:
    • A strange quark is electrically charged, carrying an amount -1/3, as does the down quark.
  • (obsolete) Belonging to another country; foreign.
  • * Shakespeare
    • one of the strange queen's lords
  • * Ascham
    • I do not contemn the knowledge of strange and divers tongues.
  • (obsolete) Reserved; distant in deportment.
  • * Shakespeare
    • She may be strange and shy at first, but will soon learn to love thee.
    (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
  • (obsolete) Backward; slow.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • Who, loving the effect, would not be strange / In favouring the cause.
  • (obsolete) Not familiar; unaccustomed; inexperienced.
  • * Shakespeare
    • In thy fortunes am unlearned and strange .

    Synonyms

    * (not normal) bizarre, fremd, odd, out of the ordinary, peculiar, queer, singular, unwonted, weird * (qualifier, not part of one's experience): new, unfamiliar, unknown * See also

    Antonyms

    * (not normal) everyday, normal, regular (especially US), standard, usual, unsurprising * (qualifier, not part of one's experience): familiar, known

    Derived terms

    * for some strange reason * like a cat in a strange garret * strange as it may seem * strange bird * strangelet * strange matter * strange quark * strangely * strangeness * strangeonium * stranger things happen at sea, stranger things have happened at sea * strange to say * truth is stranger than fiction

    Related terms

    * estrange, estranged * stranger

    Verb

    (strang)
  • (obsolete) To alienate; to estrange.
  • (obsolete) To be estranged or alienated.
  • (obsolete) To wonder; to be astonished.
    • (Glanvill)

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words

    Noun

    (no plural)
  • (slang, uncountable) vagina
    • ----

    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