Definition of "wallflower"

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.

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, […], column 1

Mrs. Galbraith shook all over with laughter as she replied, "Hear that boy, asking me to dance ! I'm content to be a wallflower, now-a-days."

1878, Fannie Bean, Dr. Mortimer's Patient: A Novel, page 23

And now, by virtue of his office, he is entitled to a seat in the Grand Lodge. Is it any wonder he is a wall-flower there […]

1885, The Freemason's Repository, page 133

It is a triumph, of course, to have plenty of partners, and not to be a wallflower for a single dance.

1897, Mrs. C. E. Humphry, Manners for Women, page 53

Jack Breen was a wallflower; still at the same time I noticed he was cultivating an ornamental smile — a Jack of Trumps, you bet.

1913, Plasterer, page 8

She was a wallflower in a sleepy little town itself a wallflower. She was a joke to the village wits and a byword to the village belles.

1921, Collier's, page 3

"Where--oh. Hidden in the corner. You two aren't already going all wallflower, are you?" "We are not wallflowers." "To be fair, I can be. But then I get mad at myself for it and get all loud and snarky."

2013 May 22, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Second City was a wallflower at the show business ball. It needed to be. Improvisers needed to fail, and fail safely; and in the Midwest, far from Broadway and Hollywood, they really could. Second-class stature was the secret ingredient, ...

2017, Sam Wasson, Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, page 94

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.

2019, Liz Tyner, To Win a Wallflower, Harlequin

[…] 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.

2010, Alexandra Carter, Janet O'Shea, The Routledge Dance Studies Reader, page 237