Meanings
plural coynesses
- uncountableusuallyThe property of being coy.
Her coyneſs was conquered by aſſiduity, and at laſt ſhe conſented to reſign the treaſure of her charms to my paſſion.
1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 151 more example
Former Harvard professor and communist Noel Ignatiev, who co-founded the New Abolitionist Society and founded a journal called Race Traitor, named after a book he coauthored in the mid-1990s, famously advocated for the complete abolition of the white race […] Note a certain coyness about whether this destruction refers to only a white race category or to all white-skinned people.
2024 April 11, Wade Miller, “Policy Brief: The Great Replacement in Theory and Practice”, in Center for Renewing America, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2024
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
German Scheuheit
- Scheuheitstate of being coy
Cite this entry
coyness. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coyness
“coyness.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coyness. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “coyness,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/coyness.
Source: coyness on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.