What's the difference between coy and gentle?

Coy


Definition:

  • (a.) Quiet; still.
  • (a.) Shrinking from approach or familiarity; reserved; bashful; shy; modest; -- usually applied to women, sometimes with an implication of coquetry.
  • (a.) Soft; gentle; hesitating.
  • (v. t.) To allure; to entice; to decoy.
  • (v. t.) To caress with the hand; to stroke.
  • (v. i.) To behave with reserve or coyness; to shrink from approach or familiarity.
  • (v. i.) To make difficulty; to be unwilling.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But when you ask Lewis what exactly the Euston Project is, the editor-in-chief, a supremely confident showman, is irritatingly coy.
  • (2) Right now he's working on another sitcom for the BBC – he's coy about what, precisely.
  • (3) He often seems mysteriously amused, cocking an eyebrow and pulling a coy, wouldn’t-you-like-to-know smirk, but he likes to laugh out loud, too.
  • (4) I ll keep one eyes on u spurs hv a good luck this season #COYS 💋🙏👊❤ September 2, 2013 8.51pm BST This is what Assou-Ekotto's got to say about developments.
  • (5) Naomi Gryn with baby Sadie Joy, who was born by elective caesarean on 31 October At first I, too, was coy about telling anyone that I was pregnant.
  • (6) The commercial coyness is long gone, and moves to monetise the audience with new forms of advertising have often provoked backlashes.
  • (7) Asked about his future plans, Götze, whose contract with Bayern runs out in 2017, remained coy.
  • (8) While the Koch brothers remain coy about their candidate preferences, a number of billionaire donors in the Koch network, including hedge fund chieftains Paul Singer and Robert Mercer, have either made large donations to Super Pacs supporting candidates, or are expected to do so.
  • (9) The Labour manifesto is a little more coy: "To encourage freedom of speech and access to information, we will bring forward new legislation on libel to protect the right of defendants to speak freely."
  • (10) He won't reveal much about the new series, beyond a coy, "Well, there's a reunion that doesn't necessarily go to plan.
  • (11) His mother is a lawyer, and although there have been coy references to what his father does (along the lines of "something to do with commodities") he's actually a vice president of Morgan Stanley.
  • (12) But what’s damaging the lives of millions of schoolgirls and women is not daft and coy terms for periods, but being unable to talk about them at all, or being so ashamed that they have to dry their sanitary cloths under the beds or in the damp, getting urinary infections or worse.
  • (13) When asked about their actual prospects in the Senate and House of Representatives, both became coy.
  • (14) I met her, and I can only say that for a couple of hours she was smart, honest and a great talker – there was no fuss, no coyness, no sham and no act.
  • (15) This is idealistic stuff at the heart of his "Communitarian Conservatism" but one increasingly senses that it is theology which really underpins the argument, and that Bond is being coy about his own Anglicanism.
  • (16) Cameron, on the other hand, is less coy about who came out on top.
  • (17) Security and defence officials are coy about what they know of specific attacks.
  • (18) The replication of an avian influenza A, Fowl plague virus (FPV), Ulster 73 strain, was studied in chick embryo fibroblasts, assumed to be the natural host, and in cells of different origin such as LLC-MK2, Hep-2, Vero, KB and Mc Coy.
  • (19) He is coy when asked whether he was also approached about a senior boardroom role at HSBC around the same time, but frank about the choice he faced when the candidate for the RBS job – former Standard Chartered boss Mervyn, now Lord, Davies – pulled out.
  • (20) Chlamydia trachomatis strains were isolated from the endocervix by the Mc Coy technique in 31 (13.4%) of 232 women aged 18 to 26 years.

Gentle


Definition:

  • (superl.) Well-born; of a good family or respectable birth, though not noble.
  • (superl.) Quiet and refined in manners; not rough, harsh, or stern; mild; meek; bland; amiable; tender; as, a gentle nature, temper, or disposition; a gentle manner; a gentle address; a gentle voice.
  • (superl.) A compellative of respect, consideration, or conciliation; as, gentle reader.
  • (superl.) Not wild, turbulent, or refractory; quiet and docile; tame; peaceable; as, a gentle horse.
  • (superl.) Soft; not violent or rough; not strong, loud, or disturbing; easy; soothing; pacific; as, a gentle touch; a gentle gallop .
  • (n.) One well born; a gentleman.
  • (n.) A trained falcon. See Falcon-gentil.
  • (n.) A dipterous larva used as fish bait.
  • (v. t.) To make genteel; to raise from the vulgar; to ennoble.
  • (v. t.) To make smooth, cozy, or agreeable.
  • (v. t.) To make kind and docile, as a horse.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Put in a large bowl, add the parsley, oil and lemon juice, and gently toss.
  • (2) Differential and sucrose gradient centrifugation of honey bee thoraces, disrupted by gentle methods and using mannitol-triethanolamine-EDTA buffer at pH 6.5, showed that in the honey bee thorax 92-94.8% of the trehalase was mitochondrial.
  • (3) Despite his gentle demeanour, the 52-year-old director can be a taskmaster on set, according to colleagues.
  • (4) The response was composed of an isometric phase, during which the body weight was shifted from the stimulated limb to the opposite forelimb while the stimulated limb was gently pushed backwards, and a movement phase during which the stimulated paw actually accomplished the placing reaction.
  • (5) Maximal expiratory flow-volume (MEFV) curves similar to those obtained in most dogs and in some humans could be produced: a peak followed by a gently sloping plateau ending in a knee, where flow suddenly fell to a much smaller value approaching zero rather slowly over the last 25 to 50% of the expired vital capacity.
  • (6) Ten tissue sections from 10 examples of Bowen's disease were excised from paraffin blocks, rehydrated, and incubated in 90% formic acid at 45 degrees C for 18 h. The epidermis was gently removed with the aid of a dissecting microscope, and the remaining dermis with attached basal lamina was processed for scanning electron microscopy.
  • (7) Varying widely in size and configuration, these structures are usually somewhat ovoid but can be elongated, gently squared, or asymmetric.
  • (8) Less than 2% of humanitarian funds 'go directly to local NGOs' Read more Suggest to her that she’s too outspoken, that her approach is counterproductive and alienates those who are trying to drive change more gently, and she pauses.
  • (9) Rabbit aorta contracting substance (RCS) and prostaglandins were released from guinea-pig isolated perfused lungs by gentle massage and also by infusion of Prosparol.2.
  • (10) Endodontic procedures should be accomplished with judicious precision and gentle.
  • (11) If this coastline ever gets fully developed, I hope it happens in this direction, taking the lead from Punta del Diablo with a gentle development down, rather than large-scale and from Punta del Este upwards.
  • (12) The cell debris from the surfaces of the separated incisors was either gently wiped off with soft facial tissues or chemically removed by treating with NaOH, NaOCl or trypsin.
  • (13) Does he really think, like those daft gender essentialists, that women are innately gentle and men are big brutes out for a ruck?
  • (14) An attempt was made to isolate undegraded hyaluronan from rat skin by gentle methods giving full recovery in order to estimate the molecular weight of the polysaccharide.
  • (15) The adherent cells are easily removed by gentle pipetting; both adherent and nonadherent populations retain immunologic function.
  • (16) Ramos was beaten to it, De Gea did not move and Kalinic jumped to ease in a gentle, back-heel-style volley with the outside of his foot.
  • (17) But Nick Loening, owner of Ecoyoga in the Scottish Highlands, is evangelical about the benefits of a good soak and gently insistent that his guests make the most of the various bathing options at his retreat – regardless of the weather.
  • (18) My father, Peter Self, who was, oxymoronically, a “political scientist”, wrote numerous books, which, while often technical in character, were nonetheless informed by his own rather gentle and utopian socialism.
  • (19) When we say goodbye, Max turns in the passenger seat, and says, simply: 'Be gentle with her.'
  • (20) 5 Dollop the blackcurrant jam all over the surface of the cooked custard and spread gently to level it.

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