bashful
Shy and easily embarrassed.
- Too bashful to join the game, Omar watched from behind the climbing frame.
- The bashful singer blushed and hid behind the curtain when the audience cheered her name.
Similar: shy, timid, quiet
bashful or timid?
Bashful people are embarrassed. Timid people are frightened.
Both words describe someone who holds back, so children treat them as twins. The difference is the feeling underneath.
Bashful is about embarrassment. A bashful girl goes pink and looks at her shoes when the head teacher praises her story in assembly. Nothing is dangerous; she just does not like the attention.
Timid is about fear. A timid kitten hides under the sofa when visitors arrive and only creeps out once the house is quiet. That is why animals are so often called timid but hardly ever bashful: a rabbit is not embarrassed, it is scared.
Both words, side by side
timid
Shy and easily frightened.
- The timid mouse peeped out of its hole, then darted back at the tiniest sound.
- Too timid to put her hand up, Sofia whispered the answer to her friend instead.
Similar: shy, nervous, fearful
Why it costs marks
Comprehension questions often ask how a character is feeling. If a passage calls someone timid and a child answers 'embarrassed', or calls someone bashful and the child answers 'afraid', they have picked the wrong feeling even though they understood the word shy.
Definitions and example sentences on this page are the ones a child sees inside Wordrealm, taken from our list of over 1,100 words. It is free to browse, with nothing to sign up for.
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test