[f. COY a. + -NESS.] The quality of being coy; display of shy reserve or unwillingness; an instance of this.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 52. The manner of Ladies to salute Gentlemen with coynesse.
1611. Beaum. & Fl., Maid’s Trag., II. i. This is but the coyness of a bride.
1614. Stirling, Doomesday, 6th Ho. (R.). I scorne men’s coynesse, women’s stoutnesse hate.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, III. xxiii. 232. Some of us women act as if we thought coyness and modesty the same thing.
1814. Mrs. West, Alicia de Lacy, II. 280. Nor did Matilda affect those doubts and coynesses to which her heart was a stranger.
1853. Merivale, Rom. Rep., iii. (1867), 71. Rome … was wont to dispense the favour of her franchise with affected coyness.
1883. S. C. Hall, Retrospect, II. 313. The cause of her coyness was … obvious—she had on neither shoes nor stockings.
b. Said of animals.
1575. Turberv., Falconrie, 137. You shall hardly reclayme hir [a hawk] from her coynesse.
1615. Latham, Falconry (1633), 10.
1653. Walton, Angler, 167. Then she [a carp] putting on a seeming coyness, they force her through weeds and flags.
