fight shy

present singular third person fights shy · participle present fighting shy · participle past fought shy · past fought shy

1. idiomaticintransitiveTo avoid meeting at a close distance or at close quarters; to keep out of reach, to avoid.

   Maybe she is imprisoned there and cannot get out: it would be a terrible fate, would it not, Signorina? Me, I think it is better to fight shy of the heathen gods."

   1903, Margaret Sherwood, Daphne, an Autumn Pastoral

   2 more examples

   "That's worse than useless. He's drunk. And we'll only get him against us, for he'd order us to keep out of the mess. He'd fight shy of entangling alliances. He'd forbid me to send, for he's got his ship to clear from that port."

   1909, Arthur Stringer, “The Movement in Retreat”, in The Gun-runner, New York, N.Y.: B. W. Dodge & Company

   I was struck by the manner in which Richie would always tend towards overstating the skills of players while fighting shy of criticising, as if he felt he was an ambassador for them.

   2015 April 10, Mike Selvey, “Ambassadorial Richie Benaud would always fight shy of criticising players”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2015

   Synonyms: steer clear