standoffish

• stand-offish

stand off +‎ -ish

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /stænˈdɒf.ɪʃ/

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• (Conservative RP) IPA^(key): /stænˈdɔː.fɪʃ/
• (General American) enPR: ŏf, IPA^(key): /stænˈdɔ.fɪʃ/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /stænˈdɑ.fɪʃ/
  • (/æ/ tensing) IPA^(key): [steənˈdɑ.fɪʃ]

standoffish (comparative more standoffish, superlative most standoffish)

1. Aloof; reserved; unsociable and unfriendly.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 213, columns 1–2:

     He was stand-offish with the other agents. They on their side said he was the manager’s spy upon them.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 611:

     His initial impression was that he was a bit standoffish or not over effusive […]

   • 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter VII, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, authorized British edition, London: Martin Secker […], published February 1932 (May 1932 printing), →OCLC, page 96:

     They were always a haughty family, stand-offish in a way, as they've a right to be.

• cold
• distant

• standoffishly
• standoffishness

• standoff
• stand off

• “standoffish”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "standoffish" in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• “standoffish”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987–1996.