timid

The long story short is that we haven’t traveled very far thematically since Thomas Jefferson said that timid men prefer despotism — although that was around 250 years ago.

From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026

Werro's trademark celebration, in which she mimics outstretched claws, is in honour of her father's advice to channel the spirit of a lion on the track after her judged her too timid in childhood races.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

The intervening works offer a survey of how the timid painter in the first work blossomed into the assured artist in the second.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

But de Brouwer said the EU was "timid" about enforcing the law.

From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026

A bedraggled youngish mouse held up a timid paw.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

The tenderer and the timider of creatures Often desert the brood that has been handled, Or turned about, or indiscreetly looked at.

From The Young Lady's Mentor A Guide to the Formation of Character. In a Series of Letters to Her Unknown Friends by An English Lady

He was far, far timider than they thought!'

From Hard Times by Charles Dickens

Clark!" said Potts, "you're getting timider and timider.

From Cord and Creese by James De Mille

The proximity of the farm had had the effect of scaring antelopes and gazelles and the timider animals away from the neighbourhood.

From Settlers and Scouts by Herbert Strang

But anon, imbued With a sudden, bounding access Of passion, it relaxes All timider persuasion.

From Dreams and Days: Poems by George Parsons Lathrop

With a great cry of the soul to that God it yearned and felt for through all the darkness and ruin which encompassed it, he laid his hand on hers with the timidest passing touch.

From Robert Elsmere by Mrs. Humphry Ward

But there is an Aunt Milly that Anne didn't seem to know about and, Claire, she is human—the dearest, sweetest, prettiest, timidest little thing.

From Happy House by Jane D. Abbott

I like to know what two observing eyes saw and the feelings that sometimes made the timidest heroes—sometimes cravens.

From The Iron Game A Tale of the War by Henry F. (Henry Francis) Keenan

He moved alertly; the poise of his head was sanguine; the sun shone on him; the timidest soul came nearer to him.

From The Imperialist by Sara Jeannette Duncan

But the dragons are dead and converted into poor fossil ichthyosauruses, incapable of biting the timidest damsel or the most corpulent knight that ever came out of the Stock Exchange.

From G. K. Chesterton, A Critical Study by Julius West