Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character of being timid, or easily frightened or daunted; cowardice; fearfulness; timorousness; shyness.
  • noun Synonyms See bashfulness.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being timid; timorousness; timidness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun shyness

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun fearfulness in venturing into new and unknown places or activities
  • noun fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin timiditas

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Examples

  • BLITZER: In an interview with Politico. com, this new Web site, you told Roger Simon that you were upset about what you called the timidity of several of your fellow Democrats who refuse to join you in using the constitutional power of the purse to stop the war.

    CNN Transcript Jan 30, 2007 2007

  • BLITZER: In an interview with "Politico. com", this new website, you told Roger Simon that you were upset about what you called the timidity of several of your fellow Democrats who refused to join you in using the constitutional power of the purse to stop the war.

    CNN Transcript Jan 30, 2007 2007

  • The biographers of William Lloyd Garrison are never tired of condemning Dr. Channing for what they call his timidity, his shunning any personal contact with the great abolitionist, his failure to grapple boldly with the evils of slavery, and his half-hearted espousal of the cause of abolition.

    Unitarianism in America George Willis Cooke 1885

  • Stewart repeatedly contrasted the Obama's heady campaign trail rhetoric, of hope, change and audacity, with what he called the timidity of his legislative programme.

    The Guardian World News Ewen MacAskill 2010

  • Until the Democrats in Congress start serving the will of the people, Republican timidity is a small wonder.

    Matthew Yglesias » The World Turned Upside Down 2008

  • Yet despite this, I frequently observe a certain timidity on the part of many Canadians to enter another marketplace which they consider perhaps too competitive and dominated by the international "Big Boys."

    Partners in Freedom 1980

  • Field was anything but a timid man, he had been in too many tight places in his life to know the meaning of the word timidity, but then he had to exercise a certain discretion.

    The Slave of Silence

  • He seems to have fallen into the same deep despondency as his brethren, and to be shrinking with nervous timidity from a difficult, if not desperate, cause.

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • I had been a great favorite with this teacher, but she was so disgusted with my stupidity, as she called my timidity, that she said:

    Eighty Years and More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1858

  • What she called timidity, and what I am sure she longed to call stupidity, was the silence of overawed admiration, or mixed curiosity and discretion.

    Tales and Novels — Volume 10 Maria Edgeworth 1808

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