What's the difference between sheepish and shy?

Sheepish


Definition:

  • (a.) Of or pertaining to sheep.
  • (a.) Like a sheep; bashful; over-modest; meanly or foolishly diffident; timorous to excess.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Normally I'm really interesting to talk to but I just can't right now," one employee, drinking an ale, smiled sheepishly.
  • (2) A startled man got out of the passenger seat, then a sheepish looking woman in a cocktail dress and holding a half-smoked cigarette emerged, smoothing her hair.
  • (3) On the BBC, Jingo Boy and Mark Lawrenson are debating whether a slightly sheepish looking Jorge Larrionda is trying to level things up as best he could.
  • (4) A burning desire to get the hell out of this boring town where nothing ever happens – even if only to return sheepishly in middle age, with your kids, to somewhere that nothing ever happens – is the rocket fuel propelling millions of teenagers into bigger and better lives than previous generations experienced.
  • (5) My team doesn’t do great on diversity,” Allen admits sheepishly.
  • (6) That’s certainly what the membership would feel.” Regarding the “two out of 10” score, however, he is more sheepish.
  • (7) He looks sheepish and laughs: “Look, were one to say Ruskin’s entire view were beside the point, it would be outrageous – ludicrous.
  • (8) By 1996, rumours of a relationship had been confirmed: paparazzi shots of here a shy kiss, there some sheepish hand-holding.
  • (9) I would describe her as … sheepish.” He later said: “Ms Cafferkey got through the screening area with what I would call as deception.” After Cafferkey tested positive for Ebola, Nick Gent, a doctor and deputy dead of PHE’s emergency response department, was drafted in to assess the efficacy of the screening process.
  • (10) With e-cigs, it seems you haven't "really quit", even if you've really quit tobacco, the very substance that sheepish smokers yearn to eschew.
  • (11) But it has just had to – sheepishly, you’d imagine – admit that the personal details of up to 4 million federal employees have been compromised.
  • (12) She rather sheepishly admits that she has just set one up, but when I ask her when she did so she says: "Today, or yesterday."
  • (13) "I was working on my own film, too, but it never worked out," he says sheepishly.
  • (14) I once got offered a pay rise only to be called back in a couple of days later and told, a little sheepishly, that actually, terribly sorry, it wasn’t going to be possible.
  • (15) This feeling of sheepishness is unavoidable: we gave the crisis a human face because without one it would have been even more incomprehensible, alienating and frightening than it already was.
  • (16) In the live TV announcement, he was presented with a letter his 15-year-old self wrote to the Radio Times praising its Doctor Who coverage, which Capaldi sheepishly referred to as "the full anorak".
  • (17) But the pension funds have had the last laugh, with Webb's sheepish statement that, contrary to his promise, "any cap on charges will not be introduced before April 2015".
  • (18) We had all zoned out a bit at the end of a long ceremony, but woke up with a start when La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz announced that it was a mistake, that Moonlight has won, and said what must for him have been sickening words: “This is not a joke.” Don't let that Oscars blunder overshadow Moonlight's monumental achievement Read more After that brush with the cockup-iceberg, our awards-season flagship Titanic was to limp very sheepishly into port.
  • (19) As the first week came to an end, I asked when I would have my expenses reimbursed (it had clearly stated on the internship advertisement that expenses would be paid) and was sheepishly informed by his assistant that they didn't pay expenses.
  • (20) As the scorecards were read, the boos started with the first verdict against Pacquiao and didn't let up through the post fight interviews with a visibly sheepish Bradley.

Shy


Definition:

  • (superl.) Easily frightened; timid; as, a shy bird.
  • (superl.) Reserved; coy; disinclined to familiar approach.
  • (superl.) Cautious; wary; suspicious.
  • (a.) To start suddenly aside through fright or suspicion; -- said especially of horses.
  • (v. t.) To throw sidewise with a jerk; to fling; as, to shy a stone; to shy a slipper.
  • (n.) A sudden start aside, as by a horse.
  • (n.) A side throw; a throw; a fling.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Philip Shaw, chief economist at broker Investec, expects CPI to hit 5.1%, just shy of the 5.2% reached in September 2008, as the utility hikes alone add 0.4% to inflation.
  • (2) The Vc was dramatically increased in the qk, slightly decreased in the shi, and close to control in the mld.
  • (3) Twellman has steadily grown in confidence as he settles into his role, though whether as a player or as an advocate he was never shy about voicing his opinions.
  • (4) It’s going to affect everybody.” The six songs from Rebel Heart released thus far do not shy away from controversy: one, Illuminati, mocks the various conspiracy theories on the internet that implicate a variety of entertainers – including Jay-Z and Lady Gaga – in membership of a shadowy ruling elite.
  • (5) But today, Americans increasingly no longer shy away from saying they oppose mosques on the grounds that Muslims are a threat or different.
  • (6) In general, we've shied away from offering opinions on the rest of the industry – I don't think it's appropriate.
  • (7) Never camera-shy, he also leaves his legacy on celluloid too.
  • (8) On the other hand, if past experience is anything to go by, this government isn’t shy of a U-turn ; and, if Whittingdale and his advisers aren’t completely deaf, they may at least detect that he would do well to keep the relish out of his voice as he announces the steps he intends to take.
  • (9) It’s as if they were a team away from the team, and they’re not shy of plugging into it.
  • (10) And just a few games shy of making history, the Warriors blew a 17-point lead and fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves – another team that didn’t even come close to making the playoffs – after forcing the game into overtime.
  • (11) She was a little shy as a child, a big reader who loved movies as much as books and thought from an early age that she would be a writer.
  • (12) By contrast, in Shy-Drager cases there was a highly significant reduction in intermediolateral column cells compared with the normal cords.
  • (13) A ceremony will take place at which Jolie will receive the child, who is said to be healthy, likeable, a bit shy and keen on football.
  • (14) A young, shy jihadi named Fouad took us into an abandoned building, where a meal was spread out on the floor.
  • (15) Sterling fell 1.3% against the dollar to $1.6495, just shy of a session low $1.6475.
  • (16) Estimates of panda numbers in the wild vary enormously due to the difficulty of collecting data about the notoriously shy animal, which lives in dense, high-altitude vegetation: the last survey required more than 35,000 volunteers.
  • (17) The move signals a change for Democrats , who have traditionally shied away from gun control in a state with a pioneer tradition of gun ownership.
  • (18) What's more, his genial stiffness and shy self-awareness give him a kind of awkward dignity compared to the preening smugness of Cruz.
  • (19) Pausing while much of the audience booed the protester, Obama responded: "We're not going to shy away from things that are uncomfortable."
  • (20) Another shy Tory, who teaches at a secondary school in north Kent, says she voted Ukip in the European elections.

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