touch-me-not-ish

comparative more touch-me-not-ish · superlative most touch-me-not-ish

1. aloof; standoffish

   I believe you mean to be nasty, Paula. You have grown more freezy and ‘touch-me-not-ish’ than ever. I don't think marriage has improved you.

   1895, Eliza Margaret Jane Gollan Von Booth (as "Rita"), A Gender in Satin, New York/London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, page 144

   1 more example

   Misinterpreting her silence Howland peered at her, and said bracingly, "I know you don't believe it, but there's plenty of fine gentlemen who judge you quite beautiful, and would be dashed eager to take you to wife if you'd not be so everlastingly touch-me-not-ish."

   1994, Patricia Veryan, A Shadow's Bliss (The Tales of the Jewelled Men; 4), New York: St. Martin's Press

   Synonyms: remote, reserved, aloof, cool, distant, frosty, hankty, hard-to-get