chicken-hearted
Lacking in courage
Chicken-hearted means cowardly or easily frightened—lacking courage when it matters.
The chicken has long symbolized timidity in English, giving us this compound along with variants like chicken-livered and the simpler chicken: He was too chicken-hearted to ask for a raise.
The term is mildly old-fashioned but still understood.
Contemptibly lacking nerve
- pusillanimousLacking courage or determination
- spinelessLacking courage or resolve
- gutlessLacking bravery or nerve
- yellow-belliedEasily frightened, timid
lily-livered · dastardly · poltroon · recreant · timorous · quailing · white-livered · unheroic
Feeble, unassertive person
- sissyPejorative for effeminate male
- wimpTimid, feeble person
- fraidy-catTimid, easily startled person
- scaredy-catOverly timid person
yellow-belly · namby-pamby · wimpish · pantywaist · jellyfish · doormat · pushover · quitter
Unable to make choices
- vacillatingSwaying between choices
- waveringShowing unsteady resolve
- falteringBecoming unsteady or weak
- ditheringProlonged indecisive hesitation
wishy-washy · spineless · weak-willed · pliant · yielding · uncommitted · shilly-shallying
craven
Contemptibly lacking nerve
- pusillanimousLacking courage or determination
- spinelessLacking courage or resolve
- gutlessLacking bravery or nerve
yellow-bellied · lily-livered · dastardly · poltroon · recreant · timorous · quailing · white-livered · unheroic · shrinking
milksop
Feeble, unassertive person
- sissyPejorative for effeminate male
- wimpTimid, feeble person
- fraidy-catTimid, easily startled person
scaredy-cat · yellow-belly · namby-pamby · wimpish · pantywaist · jellyfish · doormat · pushover · quitter · defeatist
indecisive
Unable to make choices
- vacillatingSwaying between choices
- waveringShowing unsteady resolve
- falteringBecoming unsteady or weak
dithering · wishy-washy · spineless · weak-willed · pliant · yielding · uncommitted · shilly-shallying
shy
Reserved and retiring
hesitant · shrinking · mousy · unassertive · retiring · coy · demure · tentative · apprehensive · nervous
- ___-hearted words
- cowardicecoward, craven, gutless, spineless, yellow
- timiditybashfulness, shyness, timidness, timorousness, meekness