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Coy   /kɔɪ/   Listen
adjective
Coy  adj.  
1.
Quiet; still. (Obs.)
2.
Shrinking from approach or familiarity; reserved; bashful; shy; modest; usually applied to women, sometimes with an implication of coquetry. "Coy, and difficult to win." "Coy and furtive graces." "Nor the coy maid, half willings to be pressed, Shall kiss the cup, to pass it to the rest."
3.
Soft; gentle; hesitating. "Enforced hate, Instead of love's coy touch, shall rudely tear thee."
Synonyms: Shy; shriking; reserved; modest; bashful; backward; distant.



verb
Coy  v. t.  (past & past part. coyed; pres. part. coying)  
1.
To allure; to entice; to decoy. (Obs.) "A wiser generation, who have the art to coy the fonder sort into their nets."
2.
To caress with the hand; to stroke. "Come sit thee down upon this flowery bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy."



Coy  v. i.  
1.
To behave with reserve or coyness; to shrink from approach or familiarity. (Obs.) "Thus to coy it, With one who knows you too!"
2.
To make difficulty; to be unwilling. (Obs.) "If he coyed To hear Cominius speak, I 'll keep at home."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Coy" Quotes from Famous Books



... exchange this fierce concoctive and digestive heat,—this rabid fury which vexes me, which tears and torments me,—for your quiet, mortified, hermit-like, subdued, and sanctified stomachs, your cool, chastened inclinations and coy desires for food! ...
— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb

... everything. Even Pearl had her own ideas, as was once shown in a confidence when they were alone in Stephen's bedroom after helping her to finish her dressing, just as Stephen herself had at a similar age helped her Uncle Gilbert. After some coy leading up to the subject of pretty dresses, the child putting her little mouth ...
— The Man • Bram Stoker

... whatever that this moose, at least, had come to what he thought was the call of a mate. Moonlight is deceptive beyond a few feet; so when the low grunt sounded in the shadow of the great rock he was sure he had found the coy creature at last, and broke out of his concealment resolved to keep her in sight and not to let her get away again. That is why he swam after us. Had he been investigating some new sound or possible danger, ...
— Wood Folk at School • William J. Long

... coy, pensive fay, Comes garlanded with lily-beds, And apple blooms shed incense through the bow'r, To be her dow'r; While through the deafy dells A wondrous concert swells To welcome ...
— The Upward Path - A Reader For Colored Children • Various

... head, and the straining, glorious heroism of plunging, crashing bodies and aching limbs. For those minutes courage flowed like wine out of the November dusk, and he was the eternal hero, one with the sea-rover on the prow of a Norse galley, one with Roland and Horatius, Sir Nigel and Ted Coy, scraped and stripped into trim and then flung by his own will into the breach, beating back the tide, hearing from afar the thunder of cheers... finally bruised and weary, but still elusive, circling an end, twisting, changing pace, straight-arming... falling behind the ...
— This Side of Paradise • F. Scott Fitzgerald


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