bashful

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: bash=ful

CIDE DICTIONARY

bashful, a. [See Bash.].

•  Abashed; daunted; dismayed.  [1913 Webster]
•  Very modest, or modest to excess; constitutionally disposed to shrink from public notice; indicating extreme or excessive modesty; shy; as, a bashful person, action, expression.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Diffident; retiring; reserved; shamefaced; sheepish.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

bashful, adj.
1 shy, diffident, self-conscious.
2 sheepish.

Derivative

bashfully adv. bashfulness n.

Etymology

obs. bash (v.), = ABASH

THESAURUS

bashful

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uncongenial, undemonstrative, uneasy, unexpansive, unfriendly, ungenial, unostentatious, unsociable, unsocial, withdrawn

ROGET THESAURUS

bashful

Modesty

N modesty, humility, diffidence, timidity, retiring disposition, unobtrusiveness, bashfulness, mauvaise honte, blush, blushing, verecundity, self-knowledge, reserve, constraint, demureness, blushing honors, modest, diffident, humble, timid, timorous, bashful, shy, nervous, skittish, coy, sheepish, shamefaced, blushing, overmodest, unpretending, unpretentious, unobtrusive, unassuming, unostentatious, unboastful, unaspiring, poor in spirit, out of countenance, reserved, constrained, demure, humbly, quietly, privately, without ceremony, without beat of drum, sans fa, not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty, thy modesty's a candle to thy merit.