timid
Americanadjective
-
lacking in self-assurance, courage, or bravery; easily alarmed; timorous; shy.
- Synonyms:
- fainthearted, fearful
-
characterized by or indicating fear.
a timid approach to a problem.
adjective
-
easily frightened or upset, esp by human contact; shy
-
indicating shyness or fear
Related Words
See cowardly.
Other Word Forms
- overtimid adjective
- overtimidly adverb
- timidity noun
- timidly adverb
- timidness noun
- untimid adjective
- untimidly adverb
Etymology
Origin of timid
First recorded in 1540–50; from Latin timidus “fearful,” equivalent to tim(ēre) “to fear” + -idus adjective suffix; -id 4
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.
There was a well-timed, but far too timid, call to buy back into stocks right at the April low.
The timid 12-year-old wore a Christmas sweater and laid his head on the table as Vazquez and the other women prepared his gifts.
From Los Angeles Times
“Action from policy makers has been nonexistent, timid or ineffectual. In tandem, corporate Canada has become beset by contentment and incumbency.”
Ella lives in the “state,” she runs afoul of the “party,” but skirting these details feels too timid.
From Los Angeles Times
It is the narrator’s own psyche, her ambition to eclipse a ghost and her yearning to be “anything but the timid, foolish creature” she imagines herself to be.
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.
