Definition of shrinking violet in US English:
shrinking violet
nounˈSHriNGkiNG ˈvī(ə)lət
informal An exaggeratedly shy person.
Dorothy is no shrinking violet when it comes to expressing her views
Example sentencesExamples
- He said the girls were no shrinking violets when it came to contesting the ball.
- This was no shrinking violet who wrote his poetry from the lonely vantage of an ivory tower.
- People know that I am not a shrinking violet and there will have to be major and widespread changes.
- She insists it was not a conscious decision, however, and points out she has toured separately with two women who could never be described as shrinking violets.
- None of them is known for being a shrinking violet.
- She was, she says, a shrinking violet for her first year at Glasgow University.
- So it doesn't pay to be a shrinking violet when faced with appalling service.
- South Lakeland men are shrinking violets according to a company setting up speed dating events in the area.
- If called upon to sing a song, they weren't shrinking violets.
- Eitam is no shrinking violet - when his bride-to-be asked him at age 18 what he wanted to do when he grew up, ‘I told her I wanted to be the leader of the people of Israel’.
- He is certainly no shrinking violet and will not suffer fools gladly.
- There are no shrinking violets in our family, we all had a point of view.
- Rowland and other feminist critics are hardly shrinking violets; they called their 1984 conference on the subject ‘The Death of the Female.’
- Cab drivers, and London ones in particular, are seldom known as shrinking violets who keep their opinions to themselves.
- Not surprisingly, the first question Oprah - no shrinking violet herself - asked her was where she got her confidence from.
- You will probably have noticed that Martin is scarcely a shrinking violet, nor a slack-jawed dullard.
- It's certainly a colourful creation, but not for shrinking violets.
- If you stop them in the street they are not shrinking violets.
- Normally, you wouldn't expect your local councillor to be a shrinking violet.