as in bashfulness
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for sheepishness
Noun
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Her skin—something known as Frubber, a porous patented blend of fleshlike elastic polymers—stretched over a structure of plastic and titanium, and there was no flicker of bashfulness.—
Dan Turello,
New Yorker,
10 Jan. 2026
Noun
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And that eye could see past Dorothy’s drab uniform and Cindy Brady pigtails, her tall girl’s diffidence and her sweet girl’s shyness, to the bombshell smoldering underneath.—
Lili Anolik,
Vanity Fair,
12 Jan. 2026
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There are no speakers in the songs of MJ Lenderman other than MJ Lenderman, whose diffidence and exhaustion are in all-too-perfect lockstep with the psychic frustrations of his listeners.—
Armin Rosen,
The Washington Examiner,
9 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The Bulls took 18 fewer shots than the Celtics as a direct result of their timidity on the glass, grabbing only six offensive rebounds to Boston’s 20.—
Julia Poe,
Chicago Tribune,
6 Jan. 2026
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Enmired in the self-satisfactions and unnamed timidities of childhood, Galinda finds in herself neither canniness nor the need to cultivate it.—
Natalie Oganesyan,
Deadline,
30 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Manuel, for all his shyness, had been a regular on a recreational baseball team.—
Jordan Salama,
New Yorker,
30 Dec. 2025
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Although it’s still considered rare, it’s often misdiagnosed as shyness — which can delay treatment.—
Erin Silvia,
PEOPLE,
28 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Passage of this resolution was tantamount to acquiescence by Congress, granting the president the authority to respond militarily by sending thousands of troops to fight in Vietnam.—
Richard Cherwitz,
Sun Sentinel,
6 Jan. 2026
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Despite that goal, the Utah Legislature’s Republican supermajority, with Cox’s acquiescence, has taken a hard turn against solar power — which has been coming online faster than any other source in Utah and accounts for two-thirds of the new projects waiting to connect to the state’s power grid.—
Anjeanette Damon,
ProPublica,
12 Dec. 2025
Noun
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When President Joe Biden was in office, the United States did not treat Maduro as a legitimate head of state entitled to diplomatic deference.—
Timothy M. Herbst,
Hartford Courant,
13 Jan. 2026
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More recently, the overturning of Chevron deference in Loper Bright (2024) gives judges new bases to substitute their preferred interpretations for those of expert agencies acting on congressional will.—
Duncan Hosie,
The Atlantic,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
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But for Coles, his indoctrination to law enforcement has been a different level of submissiveness.—
Dan Pompei,
New York Times,
2 Dec. 2025
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In Killers of the Flower Moon, his Ernest Burkhart starts off as a mopey, weak-minded World War One veteran, eager to do anything for his godfather uncle (Robert De Niro), but there’s still a certain likability to his dim-bulb submissiveness.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
2 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Cross and Broderick here offer studies in otiose passivity.—
Helen Shaw,
New Yorker,
18 Dec. 2025
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By changing the dynamic of Grainier and Fu Sheng’s relationship, urging us to care about them both, and dropping Grainier’s malcontent bent, Bentley shifts the focus of the story so that its central themes are now about the corrosive impact of passivity and inertia.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
24 Nov. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Sheepishness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sheepishness. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.
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