A bashful person gets embarrassed easily when other people look at them or talk to them — at a party, when they are praised, when they have to speak up. It is a kind of shyness you can see: a bashful smile, eyes down, not knowing where to put your hands. The word is a little old-fashioned and a little soft; it often sounds warm, even cute, not cruel. People use it of children, of someone in love, or in stories more than of a colleague in a meeting (there you might say shy or awkward). It is not fear, and it is not rudeness. The bashful person is not trying to be cold; attention just makes them go red.