make strange

Verb

make strange (third-person singular simple present makes strange, present participle making strange, simple past and past participle made strange)

1. (especially, idiomatic) To behave in a shy, uncommunicative, resistant manner when encountering an unfamiliar person or situation.
   • Come to Granny. You must surely be making strange, with all these foreign faces huffing and puffing around you, you poor little precious diddledums.2009, Martha Long, Ma, It's a Cold Aul Night an I'm Lookin for a Bed (2015 Seven Stories Press edition), (Google preview)
   • At a certain age, usually around 8 or 9 months, varying from child to child, most (but not all) children start making strange, meaning they become shy or even hysterical when held or touched by people they do not know well.2014, Florence Koenderink, Children Everywhere, →ISBN, page 156