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
-
Celik seems attuned to such questions as a valid (if not necessarily revelatory) core for a play to circle around, but Cramer’s writing often feels caught between an exploration of comic diffidence and simply an expression of it.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
30 Mar. 2026
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As Michael, a bathroom and kitchen fixture wholesaler, Dan Donohue’s performance is riveting in its expansion from awkward diffidence to unbridled savagery while revealing his inner core.—
Christopher Smith,
Oc Register,
2 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
This idea of reasonableness is easily caricatured as moral timidity or a bloodless neutrality that drains politics of passion.—
Nikhil Krishnan,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
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But our delay and our timidity continue to cause unimaginable human suffering.—
Jesse Whittock,
Deadline,
13 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
That got everybody over their shyness.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 Apr. 2026
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In Atlanta, some people living with SAD, as well as social phobia or even simple shyness, are facing their fears in a novel way.—
Hunter Boyce,
AJC.com,
24 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Writing in the early 1890s, Nadar deployed Balzac’s reported initial mistrust and later acquiescence to the daguerreotype as an allegory of larger significance for understanding the history of invention.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Apr. 2026
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But as the sexist and racist nature of the MAGA machine has gained mainstream acquiescence if not acceptance, the need to keep up the appearance of diversity is less and less.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Years of static budgets, staffing turnover, a culture of industry deference and a sluggish response by federal regulators have left the agency unprepared to address a contamination crisis of this size and scope, said Demonbreun-Chapman and others.—
DYLAN JACKSON,
ABC News,
6 May 2026
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However, federal law requires that judges review arbitration awards with a high degree of deference and should only vacate them if there’s an extraordinary defect, such as the award was procured by fraud or the arbitrator failed to consider relevant evidence or follow basic legal principles.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
28 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
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
-
There’s a sense of surrender in the way this tune eroticizes total passivity, giving up control, just letting your feelings pound you to a bloody pulp.—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
23 Apr. 2026
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That reflects an unserious passivity that permeates every level of the Sky organization.—
Julia Poe,
Chicago Tribune,
7 Apr. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Sheepishness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sheepishness. Accessed 9 May. 2026.
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