gun-shy
Hesitant from experience
Gun-shy describes someone made fearful or wary by past experience.
The term comes from hunting dogs that flinch at gunfire, but it applies more broadly to anyone hesitant after a bad outcome: After the last project failed, investors are gun-shy about funding new ventures.
The wariness is specific—you're gun-shy about the thing that burned you before.
Prone to nervous fright
- jumpyNervously reactive to stimuli
- nervousUneasy and apprehensive
- apprehensiveFearful of future events
- spookedFrightened into alertness
startled · jittery · edgy · tense · flinching · reactive · hypervigilant · on-edge
Unwilling to act
- waryGuardedly alert
- cautiousCareful to avoid risk
- tentativeUncertain and provisional
- leeryCautiously distrustful
guarded · chary · doubtful · uncertain · wavering · indecisive · ambivalent · skeptical
Emotionally distant, disengaged
- reticentDisinclined to speak freely
- shrinkingDecreasing in dimension
- retreatingMoving back from advance
- evasiveAvoiding direct response
standoffish · sidestepping · dodging · disengaged · noncommittal
Mentally broken by combat
- scarredMarked by healed wounds
- woundedHaving sustained harm
- battle-scarredDamaged by fighting
- flashbacksInvoluntary vivid memory episodes
hypervigilance · post-traumatic · war-weary · survivor · trauma · triggered · conditioned · haunted
skittish
Prone to nervous fright
- jumpyNervously reactive to stimuli
- nervousUneasy and apprehensive
- apprehensiveFearful of future events
spooked · startled · jittery · edgy · tense · flinching · reactive · hypervigilant · on-edge · alarmed
reluctant
Unwilling to act
leery · guarded · chary · doubtful · uncertain · wavering · indecisive · ambivalent · skeptical · circumspect
withdrawn
Emotionally distant, disengaged
- reticentDisinclined to speak freely
- shrinkingDecreasing in dimension
- retreatingMoving back from advance
evasive · standoffish · sidestepping · dodging · disengaged · noncommittal
shell-shocked
Mentally broken by combat
- scarredMarked by healed wounds
- woundedHaving sustained harm
- battle-scarredDamaged by fighting
flashbacks · hypervigilance · post-traumatic · war-weary · survivor · trauma · triggered · conditioned · haunted · damaged
- cowardicecoward, cowardly, craven, gutless, spineless
- indecisionindecision, indecisiveness, conflicted, hesitation, indecisive
- uneasyanxious, nervous, jittery, edgy, tense
- warinesscaution, wariness, guardedness, vigilance, watchfulness
gun-shyunfazed
Not disturbed or disconcerted
resilient · battle-hardened · thick-skinned · undeterred · unbowed