Dictionary

make strange en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (especially, idiomatic, of small children) To behave in a shy, uncommunicative, resistant manner when encountering an unfamiliar person or situation.
   • When children present with separation anxieties, they visibly ‘make strange’ or become distressed when separated from their parents or caregivers. 2015, Colman Noctor, Cop On: What It Is and Why Your Child Needs It to Survive and Thrive in Today’s World, →ISBN:
   • At a certain age, usually around 8 or 9 months, varying from child to child, most (but not all) children start making strange, meaning they become shy or even hysterical when held or touched by people they do not know well. 2014, Florence Koenderink, Children Everywhere, →ISBN, page 156:
   • Come to Granny. You must surely be making strange, with all these foreign faces huffing and puffing around you, you poor little precious diddledums. 2009, Martha Long, Ma, It's a Cold Aul Night an I'm Lookin for a Bed (2015 Seven Stories Press edition), (Google preview)

Forms

Translations (4)

mn бишүүрхэх ᠪᠢᠰᠢᠭᠦᠷᠬᠡᠬᠦ (behave shyly in presence of unfamiliar person) · cmn 怕生 (behave shyly in presence of unfamiliar person) · de fremdeln (behave shyly in presence of unfamiliar person) · ja 人見知りする (behave shyly in presence of unfamiliar person)