Word.ws English Dictionary

fights shy

fights shy is the third-person singular simple present indicative of fight shy.

Meaning of fight shy

Verb

fight shy (third-person singular simple present fights shy, present participle fighting shy, simple past and past participle fought shy)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To avoid meeting at a close distance or at close quarters; to keep out of reach, to avoid.
    • Maybe she is imprisoned there and cannot get out: it would be a terrible fate, would it not, Signorina? Me, I think it is better to fight shy of the heathen gods."1903, Margaret Sherwood, Daphne, an Autumn Pastoral
    Synonyms:
    steer clear

Questions about fights shy

What is fights shy the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Fights shy is the third-person singular simple present indicative of fight shy.

Words near fights shy in the dictionary

  1. fights like cats and dogs
  2. fights off
  3. fights one's corner
  4. fights one's guts out
  5. fights out
  6. fights shy
  7. fights the good fight
  8. fights the tiger
  9. fights to the death
  10. fights to the finish
  11. fights up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fights shy (page history and authors); fight shy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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