He was a singularly interesting-looking man, home from India on sick leave, and the maidens, and wives, and widows, of this polyglot assemblage at the Hotel were all inclined to admiration of his physical perfections, and to dissatisfaction at a certain coldness and disdainfulness of themselves, which, to use their mildest form of reproach, was "odd and unmilitary."
"The Mystery of a Turkish Bath"
E.M. Gollan (AKA Rita)
Joan turn'd, and the two women stood looking at each other;-the one with dark wonder, the other with cold disdainfulness-and I between them scarce lifting my eyes.
"The Splendid Spur"
Arthur T. Quiller Couch
While coyness has the various meanings of shyness, modest reserve, bashfulness, shrinking from advances or familiarity, disdainfulness, the verb "to coy" may mean the exact opposite-to coax, allure, entice, woo, decoy.
"Primitive Love and Love-Stories"
Henry Theophilus Finck