First Known Use: 14th century
Dictionary
1coy
adjective \ˈkȯi\
: having a shy or sweetly innocent quality that is often intended to be attractive or to get attention
: not telling or revealing all the information that could be revealed
Full Definition of COY
1
2
: showing reluctance to make a definite commitment <a coy response>
— coy·ly adverb
— coy·ness noun
See coy defined for English-language learners
See coy defined for kids
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Examples of COY
- It is distinctly odd to read a whole page dedicated to Hitler's life and character without a reference to his anti-Semitism. To say that Swiss banks contained gold coming from the bank accounts, the jewelry boxes, and the teeth of “concentration camp victims” is a little coy. —Ian Buruma, New Republic, 31 Jan. 2000
- Rival camps are terrified that Bush will reject federal matching funds and the campaign-spending limits they impose, and Bush's aides are coy on the subject. —John F. Dickerson, Time, 8 Mar. 1999
- And there's Julia, the charming “chatterbot” (a text-based computer character), whose coy pickup banter echoes that of real-life Internet flirts. —Michiko Kakutani, Albany (New York) Times-Union, 20 Aug. 1997
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Origin of COY
Middle English, quiet, shy, from Anglo-French quoi, quei, koi quiet, from Latin quietus
Related to COY
- Synonyms
- coquettish, demure, kittenish
- Antonyms
- uncoy
Synonym Discussion of COY
shy, bashful, diffident, modest, coy mean not inclined to be forward. shy implies a timid reserve and a shrinking from familiarity or contact with others <shy with strangers>. bashful implies a frightened or hesitant shyness characteristic of childhood and adolescence <a bashful boy out on his first date>. diffident stresses a distrust of one's own ability or opinion that causes hesitation in acting or speaking <felt diffident about raising an objection>. modest suggests absence of undue confidence or conceit <modest about her success>. coy implies a pretended shyness <put off by her coy manner>.
2coy
verb \ˈkȯi\
Definition of COY
transitive verb
obsolete : caress
intransitive verb
archaic : to act coyly (see 1coy)
Origin of COY
(see 1coy)
First Known Use: 14th century
COYLY Defined for Kids
coy
adjective \ˈkȯi\
Definition of COY for Kids
: falsely shy or modest
Word History of COY
Coy now usually means “pretending to be shy,” but earlier in the history of English it meant just “shy” as well as “quiet.” English borrowed the word from medieval French. In French, it comes, by regular changes in sound, from Latin quietus, which—borrowed directly from Latin into English—gives us the word quiet.
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