Did you know?
The Roots of Bashful
The adjective suffix -ful has a number of different senses, most of which have very little to do with "full of." In the case of bashful, -ful means "having the qualities of." This sense of -ful was combined with an obsolete verb bash meaning "to be abashed” (that is, dismayed or embarrassed) to form bashful, which literally means “having the qualities of being abashed.” This combination of a verb with -ful is also seen in mournful, which literally means “having the qualities of mourning.”
Synonyms
Examples of bashful in a Sentence
Kimi Robinson, USA TODAY, 19 June 2024
Meryl stood next to her throughout, wearing a calming white gown and glasses, making a series of grateful and stunned and moved and chuffed and bashful facial expressions and occasionally fanning herself, which is to say, being Meryl Streep.
—Rachel Handler, Vulture, 14 May 2024
Unions aren’t bashful about displaying such a show of force, which has achieved labor’s ends before.
—Michael Smolens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 May 2024
And when asked postgame about the source of her competitive fuel, Watkins deflected onto her teammates with a bashful grin.
—Luca Evans, Orange County Register, 9 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for bashful 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bashful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to bashful
Dictionary Entries Near bashful
Cite this Entry
“Bashful.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bashful. Accessed 7 Jul. 2024.
Copy Citation
Share