Adjacent Words

Bashful definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BASH'FUL, a. [See Bash and Abash.]
1. Properly, having a downcast look; hence very modest.
2. Modest to excess; sheepish.
3. Exciting shame.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: self-consciously timid; "I never laughed, being bashful; lowering my head, I looked at the wall"- Ezra Pound
2: disposed to avoid notice; "they considered themselves a tough outfit and weren't bashful about letting anybody know it"; (`blate' is a Scottish term for bashful) [syn: bashful, blate]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: obsolete bash (to be abashed) Date: 1548 1. socially shy or timid ; diffident, self-conscious 2. resulting from or typical of a bashful nature <a bashful smile> Synonyms: see shy • bashfully adverb • bashfulness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 shy, diffident, self-conscious. 2 sheepish. Derivatives: bashfully adv. bashfulness n. Etymology: obs. bash (v.), = ABASH

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Bashful Bash"ful, a. [See Bash.] 1. Abashed; daunted; dismayed. [Obs.] 2. Very modest, or modest excess; constitutionally disposed to shrink from public notice; indicating extreme or excessive modesty; shy; as, a bashful person, action, expression. Syn: Diffident; retiring; reserved; shamefaced; sheepish.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Someone who is bashful is shy and easily embarrassed. He seemed bashful and awkward... ...a bashful young lady. = shy ADJ • bashfully 'No,' Wang Fu said bashfully. ADV: ADV with v • bashfulness I was overcome with bashfulness when I met her.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Shy, timid, timorous, coy, diffident, sheepish, shamefaced, over-modest, not self-possessed.

Moby Thesaurus

Olympian, abashed, aloof, autistic, awkward, backward, blank, blushful, boggling, chilled, chilly, close, cold, confused, conscious, constrained, cool, cowardly, coy, demure, demurring, detached, diffident, discreet, dissociable, distant, embarrassed, expressionless, faltering, fearful, fearing, fearsome, forbidding, frigid, frosty, goosy, guarded, hesitant, hesitating, icy, ill at ease, impassive, impersonal, in a tizzy, in fear, inaccessible, inarticulate, incompatible, insociable, introverted, jumpy, meek, modest, mopey, mopish, morose, mousy, nervous, nongregarious, offish, qualmish, rabbity, recoiling, remote, removed, repressed, reserved, restrained, reticent, retiring, scary, scrupulous, self-conscious, self-contained, self-effacing, self-sufficient, shaky, shamefaced, shamefast, sheepish, shivery, shrinking, shy, skittery, skittish, snug, socially incompatible, squeamish, stammering, standoff, standoffish, startlish, stickling, subdued, sullen, suppressed, timid, timorous, trembling, tremulous, trepidant, trigger-happy, unaffable, unapproachable, unassertive, unassuming, unassured, unclubbable, uncomfortable, uncommunicative, uncompanionable, unconfident, uncongenial, undemonstrative, uneasy, unexpansive, unfriendly, ungenial, unostentatious, unsociable, unsocial, withdrawn