• (British) IPA: /ˈwɔːl.ˌflɑʊ.ə/
• (America) IPA: /ˈwɔl.ˌflɑʊ.ɚ/, /ˈwɑl.ˌflɑʊ.ɚ/

wallflower (plural wallflowers)

1. Any of several short-lived herbs or shrubs of the Erysimum genus with bright yellow to red flowers.
   • 1809, William Nicholson, “BOTANY ↗”, in The British Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences; […], volume I (A … B), London: Printed by C[harles] Whittingham, […]; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], OCLC 978021632 ↗, column 1:

     A polypetalous corolla is either cruciform, as in a wall-flower, rosaceous, papilionaceous, as in the pea kind, or incomplete, when some parts found in analogous flowers are wanting.

2. Gastrolobium grandiflorum, a poisonous bushy shrub, endemic to Australia.
3. (informal) A person who is socially awkward, especially one who does not dance at a party due to shyness.
   • 2019, Liz Tyner, To Win a Wallflower, Harlequin (ISBN 9781488047114)

     I've always been a wallflower, even in my own home. But, I'm willing to learn to be a part of your world. I would like to. I have already told my parents that I want to go to soirées.

• French: vélar, herbe aux chantres
• German: Goldlack, Lackstock, Lackviole, Schöterich
• Italian: violaciocca
• Portuguese: goivo, goiveira
• Russian: желтофио́ль
• Spanish: alhelí

• German: Mauerblümchen
• Spanish: inadaptado, feo del baile, fea del baile

wallflower (wallflowers, present participle wallflowering; past and past participle wallflowered)

1. (intransitive) To stand shyly apart from a dance, waiting to be asked to join in.
   • 2010, Alexandra Carter, ‎Janet O'Shea, The Routledge Dance Studies Reader (page 237)

     […] the idea that a full tango experience is impossible without the presence of wallflowers and without the threat of wallflowering as the potential dancers enter the tango club.