chicken-hearted

[ chik-uhn-hahr-tid ]
See synonyms for: chicken-heartedchickenheartedness on Thesaurus.com

adjectiveInformal.
  1. timid; fearful; cowardly.

Origin of chicken-hearted

1
An Americanism dating back to 1675–85

Other words from chicken-hearted

  • chick·en-heart·ed·ly, adverb
  • chick·en-heart·ed·ness, noun

Words Nearby chicken-hearted

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use chicken-hearted in a sentence

  • Lyn was no chicken-hearted weakling, to sit down and weep unavailingly in time of peril.

    Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair
  • There was a rush of patriots to Paris, and another rush of the chicken-hearted to the coast and the frontier.

    The Isle of Unrest | Henry Seton Merriman
  • I forgive Bellecour, who is only a chicken-hearted fellow anyway!

  • But others don't know you as well as I do, and there's plenty of them would think you were chicken-hearted.

    Grif | B. L. (Benjamin Leopold) Farjeon
  • What a chicken-hearted fellow her father must have thought me!

British Dictionary definitions for chicken-hearted

chicken-hearted

adjective
  1. easily frightened; cowardly

Derived forms of chicken-hearted

  • chicken-heartedly, adverb
  • chicken-heartedness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012