If you fight shy of something you try very hard to avoid it.

The phrase fight shy of meaning. Fight like cat and dog phrase. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities. Fight shy of someone or something To try to avoid confronting or encountering someone or something.

Definition and synonyms of fight shy of something from the online English dictionary from Macmillan Education. Describe someone or something as something. To use a lot of.

Change your default dictionary to American English. However the first citations of the phrase dont relate to cock-fighting explicitly so whether the expression originated with cock-fighting and then became a more general term for raucous fights isnt clear. I see it and I tell myself that I mustfight shy of it.

Fight to the bitter end. 7 to engage another or others in combat. The federal government has traditionally fought shy of becoming involved in education which is mainly dealt with at state level Labour has fought shy of scrapping the policy since it is politically difficult to tinker with a long-standing deal under which tenants can buy their house at a discount of up to 70 after three years of occupation.

9 fight shy of to keep aloof from. To be unwilling to accept something or do something and to try to avoid it. 11 a quarrel dispute or contest.

Kick ones ass. In the Southern US the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority or to authority in the abstract. 8 fight it out to contend or struggle until a decisive result is obtained.