View synonyms for cold feet

cold feet

noun

, Informal.

a loss or lack of courage or confidence; an onset of uncertainty or fear:
She got cold feet when asked to sing a solo.

cold feet

cold feet

To “have cold feet” is to be too fearful to undertake or complete an action: “The backup quarterback was called into the game, but he got cold feet and refused to go in.”

First recorded in 1890–95

A suicide bomber with cold feet, a road machinery operator with a vengeance and drive-by shooters have Israelis on edge.

Last year, rumors surfaced of his impending nuptials but he apparently got cold feet.

Us Weekly landed a scoop that Britney was getting cold feet, that she no longer thought of Trawick as husband material.

We keep having one-night stands with politicians we think we only want to marry, and then get cold feet.

That Jones was willing to meet with him a second time indicated to Musri that the pastor was getting cold feet.

I carried him into the kitchen, opened the oven door, and gave his cold feet a good toasting.

As the days got chilly, in the fall, it seemed as if he suffered dreadfully from cold feet.

All the cushions had to be shaken up and replaced, the coverlet respread on her ice-cold feet.

All the more reason for writing to you, in spite of cold feet and the vilest pens in the world.

A pair of boots, manifestly on a telegraph-boy's cold feet, play a devil's tattoo on the sheltered doorstep.

Browse