plunger vs shy

plunger

noun
  • A horse that plunges, or throws itself suddenly forward. 

  • The moving portion of a solenoid. 

  • One who plunges; a diver. 

  • A device similar to a piston but without a mechanism; a long solid cylinder used, instead of a piston or bucket, as a forcer in pumps. 

  • The spring-loaded assembly that propels the ball onto the table. 

  • A boiler in which clay is beaten by a wheel to a creamy consistency. 

  • The sliding activator of an exploder, an electrical generator used to trigger electrical detonators such as blasting caps. 

  • A cavalryman. 

  • The part of a cafetière that is pushed down to remove grounds from coffee. 

  • The firing pin of a breechloader. 

  • The internal piece of a syringe that pushes out or pulls in any contents. 

  • A device that is used to remove blockages from the drain of a basin or tub, by suction. 

shy

noun
  • A sudden start aside, as by a horse. 

  • In the Eton College wall game, a point scored by lifting the ball against the wall in the calx. 

  • In soccer, a throw-in from the sidelines, using two hands above the head. In shinty, the act of tossing the ball above the head and hitting it with the shaft of the caman to bring it back into play after it has been hit out of the field. 

  • An act of throwing. 

  • A place for throwing. 

adj
  • Easily frightened; timid. 

  • Embarrassed. 

  • Cautious; wary; suspicious. 

  • Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach. 

  • Short, insufficient or less than. 

verb
  • To avoid due to caution, embarrassment or timidness. 

  • (transitive) or (intransitive) To throw a ball with two hands above the head, especially when it has crossed the side lines in a football (soccer) match. To hit the ball back into play from the sidelines in a shinty match. 

  • To jump back in fear. 

  • To throw sideways with a jerk; to fling. 

How often have the words plunger and shy occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )