Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character of being sheepish; bashfulness; excessive modesty or diffidence; mean timorousness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality or property of being sheepish; shyness; bashfulness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun feeling embarrassed about yourself

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

sheepish +‎ -ness

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Examples

  • "It's Louie," said Jack, with an expression of face that was as near an approximation to what is called sheepishness as any thing I ever saw.

    The Lady of the Ice A Novel James De Mille

  • The other riders come in very slowly, and are oppressed by that indescribable air of sheepishness which is peculiar to gentleman jockeys when they do not win.

    Henry Dunbar A Novel 1875

  • Naysayers and pessimists can point all they want to the "sheepishness," indolence and decadence of the American people.

    who's your nanny? 2009

  • "That's not to say that there aren't some" Obama sheep "out there, but" sheepishness "is largely a characteristic of the willfully ignorant on the far right." - bozo

    LJWorld.com stories: News 2009

  • While my initial reaction was sheepishness, I knew the call was serious and wondered if it had to do with his ongoing health problems.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad Jack Canfield 2011

  • While my initial reaction was sheepishness, I knew the call was serious and wondered if it had to do with his ongoing health problems.

    Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad Jack Canfield 2011

  • It was almost a prayer, but a prayer that included a thousand meanings Daylight strove to feign sheepishness, but his heart was singing too wild a song for mere playfulness.

    Chapter XXIV 2010

  • I do not suggest that these obstacles were placed there consciously with the prospect of now and then enjoying the sight of an unsuspecting or unobservant or uninitiated passer-by collapsing in a jolly heap of flailing arms, smashed salsa bottles, broken eggs, spilled veggies and an overwhelming sense of sheepishness.

    Good morning, Melaque: one day in a small Mexico beach town 2009

  • I do not suggest that these obstacles were placed there consciously with the prospect of now and then enjoying the sight of an unsuspecting or unobservant or uninitiated passer-by collapsing in a jolly heap of flailing arms, smashed salsa bottles, broken eggs, spilled veggies and an overwhelming sense of sheepishness.

    Good morning, Melaque: one day in a small Mexico beach town 2009

  • I'm interested in these 'non-negotiable basics of Britishness', which when propounded in the media, usually end up as the one over-riding quality, namely a mythical sheepishness in allowing anyone who happens upon our land, to claim by nothing more than their arrival, to be as British as us.

    Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister? 2010

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