Wiktionary
fight shy
vb. To avoid meeting fairly or at close quarters; to keep out of reach.
Usage examples of "fight shy".
You learn their ways, you kill what you need to live and you bother none of the others and fight shy of them.
Close in for psychical hijiniks as well but fight shy of mugpunters.
These particular fugitives had as good reason to fight shy of Parfois as to run from the Welsh.
Torres came over to our fire to tell us Don Luis had decided to fight shy of it.
On the wagon train there had been so many folks it was easy to fight shy of any particular one, and Mae had seemed flighty and man-crazy.
No kind of kin to us that we knowed of, but good folks by all accounts, and we'd fight shy of them and try to make them no trouble.