TIMID

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does timid mean? 

• TIMID (noun)
  The noun TIMID has 1 sense:

1. people who are fearful and cautious

  Familiarity information: TIMID used as a noun is very rare.

• TIMID (adjective)
  The adjective TIMID has 3 senses:

1. showing fear and lack of confidence

2. lacking self-confidence

3. lacking conviction or boldness or courage

  Familiarity information: TIMID used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TIMID (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

People who are fearful and cautious

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

cautious; timid

Context example:

whitewater rafting is not for the timid

Hypernyms ("timid" is a kind of...):

people ((plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively)

Antonym:

brave (people who are brave)

• TIMID (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Showing fear and lack of confidence

Similar:

bashful (self-consciously timid)

coy (modestly or warily rejecting approaches or overtures)

fearful; timorous; trepid (timid by nature or revealing timidity)

intimidated (made timid or fearful as by threats)

mousey; mousy (quiet and timid and ineffectual)

Also:

unadventurous (lacking in boldness)

afraid (filled with fear or apprehension)

unassertive (inclined to timidity or lack of self-confidence)

backward ((used of temperament or behavior) marked by a retiring nature)

cowardly; fearful (lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted)

Attribute:

timidity; timorousness (fearfulness in venturing into new and unknown places or activities)

Antonym:

bold (fearless and daring)

Derivation:

timidity; timidness (fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking self-confidence

Synonyms:

diffident; shy; timid; unsure

Context example:

a very unsure young man

Attribute:

confidence (a feeling of trust (in someone or something))

Derivation:

timidness (fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lacking conviction or boldness or courage

Synonyms:

faint; faint-hearted; fainthearted; timid

Context example:

faint heart ne'er won fair lady

Similar:

cowardly; fearful (lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted)

Derivation:

timidity (fearfulness in venturing into new and unknown places or activities)

timidness (fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions)

 Context examples 

A loud response from Snodgrass, followed, to everybody's surprise, by a timid one from Beth.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

She is very timid and silent.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

She is a timid little thing, and easily disturbed and frightened.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

You are original, said he, and not timid.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

How could she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him?

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Outsides were timid and frightened, the Insides without confidence in their masters.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

His was the perfect poise, the supreme confidence in self, which nothing could shake; and he was no more timid of a woman than he was of storm and battle.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Herself fastidious and timid, she never awakened to the perilous trend of their intercourse.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In the Wild he had hunted live meat that was infinitely timid, and he knew the advantage of surprise.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

At this the Queen of the Mice stuck her head out from underneath a clump of grass and asked, in a timid voice, "Are you sure he will not bite us?"

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)