bashful

English

Alternative forms

• bashfull (archaic)

Etymology

16th-century apheresis of abashed +‎ -ful (“full of”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbæʃfəɫ], [ˈbæʃfʊɫ]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

bashful (comparative more bashful, superlative most bashful)

1. Shy; not liking to be noticed; socially timid.
2. Indicating bashfulness.

   a bashful look

   • 2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     “Have you done something to your hair?”
     “I just ran a comb through it,” shrugged the vicar.
     “Well, it looks delightful.”
     “How delightful of you to say so.” Auntie Flip and the vicar shared bashful grins. Frank had never witnessed his babysitter behave like this before.

Synonyms

• shy
• blushful
• sheepish
• See also Thesaurus:shy

Derived terms

• bashful bladder
• bashfully
• bashfulness
• overbashful
• unbashful

 

Translations

inclined to avoid notice

• Arabic: خَجُول (ḵajūl)
• Aromanian: arushinos
• Belarusian: сарамлі́вы (saramlívy)
• Bulgarian: плах (bg) (plah), свенли́в (bg) (svenlív), срамежли́в (bg) (sramežlív)
• Cherokee: ᎤᏕᎰᏌᏘ (udehosati)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 害羞 (zh) (hàixiū)

• Danish: sky (da)
• Dutch: verlegen (nl), timide (nl)
• Finnish: ujo (fi)
• French: timide (fr)
• Galician: recatado
• German: schüchtern (de), verlegen (de), scheu (de)
• Greek: ντροπαλός (el) (ntropalós)

  Ancient: αἰδήμων (aidḗmōn), αἰδοῖος (aidoîos)

• Irish: náireach, náiriúil, faiteach
• Italian: vergognoso (it), timido (it), modesto (it)
• Japanese: 恥ずかしがり屋の (ja) (はずかしがりやの, hazukashigariya no), 恥ずかしい (ja) (はずかし​い, hazukashii)
• Khmer: អៀន (km) (ʼiən)
• Korean: 부끄럼을 타다 (bukkeureomeul tada)
• Latin: pudens, verēcundus
• Latvian: kaunīgs
• Malayalam: ലജ്ജയുള്ള (lajjayuḷḷa)
• Maori: konekone, numinumi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: beskjeden (no), sky (no), forlegen, unnselig (no)

  Nynorsk: beskjeden, sky, forlegen

• Ottoman Turkish: محجوب (mahcub)
• Portuguese: tímido (pt), recatado (pt)
• Romanian: rușinos (ro)
• Russian: засте́нчивый (ru) (zasténčivyj), ро́бкий (ru) (róbkij), скро́мный (ru) (skrómnyj)
• Spanish: tímido (es)
• Turkish: utangaç (tr)
• Ukrainian: соромли́вий (soromlývyj), сором'язли́вий (uk) (soromʺjazlývyj), сором'язни́й (soromʺjaznýj)
• Welsh: swil (cy)