shrinking violet, a

1. An extremely shy person, as in She was a shrinking violet until she went away to college. This metaphoric idiom refers to the flower, but the precise allusion is unclear, since violets thrive under a variety of conditions and often are considered a garden weed. [Early 1900s]

Example Sentences

“Shrinking Violet” — a tentative, promising liaison that finds “two shrinking violets at full bloom”— opens with the lightest of drum taps, a repeated guitar note and a plinking banjo.

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