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Aloof
removed or distant either physically or emotionallyIf anyone lobs this word at you, dear introvert, feel free to stare off, as if you are looking toward a distant horizon, the promise of land after weeks at sea a tiny flame burning in your heart.
While we most often encounter aloof as an adjective, its longer history is as an adverb used with the meaning "at a distance." The adverbial use is the one American writer Herman Melville used most, typically in the collocation "hold aloof":
Shrinking Violet
A person described thusly is of course not getting smaller; the word shrink may typically have to do with getting smaller, but it is also used to mean "to recoil instinctively" and "to hold oneself back.Wallflower
a person who from shyness or unpopularity remains on the sidelines of a social activity (such as a dance) 2 : a shy or reserved personit was often used to describe a person standing along the wall at a social function.
Unclubbable
having or showing a disinclination for social activity : unsociableto describe a friend who perhaps had better places to be than the Club,
Buttoned-up
coldly reserved or standoffishThe word buttoned-up has described those who like to keep a cool distance from others.
Cool
lacking ardor or friendlinessThe polysemous cool may be overused, but when introverts want to describe themselves, its broad application may be part of its charm. Surely ardor—the relevant sense is defined in this dictionary as "an often restless or transitory warmth of feeling"—is not without negative effects, and friendliness to all can hardly be demanded of all.
Taciturn
temperamentally disinclined to talkThe word is ultimately from Latin tacitus, meaning "silent"—the same source as the word tacit, meaning "expressed or carried on without words or speech" and "implied or indicated (as by an act or by silence) but not actually expressed.
excerpt from MirramWebster
