TIMIDITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does timidity mean? 

• TIMIDITY (noun)
  The noun TIMIDITY has 2 senses:

1. fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions

2. fearfulness in venturing into new and unknown places or activities

  Familiarity information: TIMIDITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TIMIDITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fear of the unknown or unfamiliar or fear of making decisions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

timidity; timidness; timorousness

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

fear; fearfulness; fright (an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "timidity"):

cold feet (timidity that prevents the continuation of a course of action)

shyness (a feeling of fear of embarrassment)

diffidence; self-distrust; self-doubt (lack of self-confidence)

Derivation:

timid (showing fear and lack of confidence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fearfulness in venturing into new and unknown places or activities

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

timidity; timorousness

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

fearfulness (the trait of being afraid)

Attribute:

timid (showing fear and lack of confidence)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "timidity"):

faintheartedness; faintness (the trait of lacking boldness and courage)

Antonym:

boldness (the trait of being willing to undertake things that involve risk or danger)

Derivation:

timid (lacking conviction or boldness or courage)

 Context examples 

"I'm afraid they mightn't like it," began Laurie, with unusual timidity in such matters.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It had been weakness and timidity.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I am a great advocate for timidity—and I am sure one does not often meet with it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

One thing about her which surprised me was her lack of timidity and fear.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He was no longer afraid of minor things, and much of his timidity had vanished, though the unknown never ceased to press upon him with its mysteries and terrors, intangible and ever-menacing.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Where the real sex feeling begins, timidity and distrust are its companions, heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Fanny, with all her faults of ignorance and timidity, was fixed at Mansfield Park, and learning to transfer in its favour much of her attachment to her former home, grew up there not unhappily among her cousins.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

As Mr. Wickfield glanced towards her, sitting at the tea table by Agnes, she seemed to me to avoid his look with such unwonted hesitation and timidity, that his attention became fixed upon her, as if something were suggested to his thoughts.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mr. Hyde was pale and dwarfish, he gave an impression of deformity without any nameable malformation, he had a displeasing smile, he had borne himself to the lawyer with a sort of murderous mixture of timidity and boldness, and he spoke with a husky, whispering and somewhat broken voice; all these were points against him, but not all of these together could explain the hitherto unknown disgust, loathing and fear with which Mr. Utterson regarded him.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

One was struck at once by his straightforwardness and manliness, which, in turn, were tempered by a modesty which might be mistaken for timidity.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)