shying

Pluralshyings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of shy.

   The mare was shying at every shadow along the trail.

   He spent the whole meeting shying away from any mention of the budget.

   Note

   One spelling covers two quite different actions. Most often it is a horse or a person starting back or holding off, an intransitive use that takes no object. But shy also means to fling something sideways with a jerk, so shying can take a direct object, as in shying a stone. In Scotland it has a sporting use: the two-handed throw-in in football, and hitting the ball back into play in shinty.

   The boys were shying stones at an old tin can.

   He was shying the ball back onto the pitch from the touchline.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of suddenly turning or jumping aside out of fear, as a startled horse may do.

   The pony's shying at the fluttering flag unseated its young rider.

   Experienced riders learn to sit calmly through the sudden shyings of a nervous young horse.

   Similarstart (entry), swerve

   Note

   Unlike the verb form, this noun can be counted and made plural: a nervous horse has its shyings, each one a separate start. An 1895 issue of Popular Science used exactly that plural, setting "the unpredictable shyings of the horse" beside the odd directions of childish fear, so the word carries easily from the stable to human nerves. It names only the fearful start, never the throwing sense the verb also has.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2