second string vs shy

second string

adj
  • Not as good; of a lower quality or condition. 

noun
  • A unit of players which is considered to have a secondary level of talent and which usually plays after the first string. 

shy

adj
  • Short, insufficient or less than. 

  • Easily frightened; timid. 

  • Embarrassed. 

  • Cautious; wary; suspicious. 

  • Reserved; disinclined to familiar approach. 

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. 

noun
  • 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. 

  • A sudden start aside, as by a horse. 

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