standoffish
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- standoffishly adverb
- standoffishness noun
Etymology
Origin of standoffish
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In this account of life with a wild creature—a being by turns serene and frisky, trusting and standoffish—Ms. Dalton connects readers with the strangeness of the natural world.
Yet at the outset, the US appeared strikingly standoffish.
From BBC
"Prince did the same thing," he said, "I'm not saying Morgan Wallen is Prince, but we weren't surprised because Prince was notoriously kind of standoffish. It's just how he was."
From Salon
She describes herself as “prickly and standoffish, selectively extroverted, largely humorless.”
From Los Angeles Times
"I suspect people may have thought 'oh he's pretty standoffish' but it's a combination of shyness and not knowing what to say," he said.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
