cold feet
a loss or lack of courage or confidence; an onset of uncertainty or fear: She got cold feet when asked to sing a solo.
Origin of cold feet
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use cold feet in a sentence
A suicide bomber with cold feet, a road machinery operator with a vengeance and drive-by shooters have Israelis on edge.
As Gaza War Comes Home to Israel, a Reluctant Suicide Bomber Emerges | Itay Hod | August 4, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTLast year, rumors surfaced of his impending nuptials but he apparently got cold feet.
Wedding Bells for Natalie Holloway Suspect Joran van der Sloot | Barbie Latza Nadeau | May 31, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTUs Weekly landed a scoop that Britney was getting cold feet, that she no longer thought of Trawick as husband material.
Britney Spears and Jason Trawick: He’s Her Fiancé, Manager, and Conservator | Ramin Setoodeh | September 11, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTWe 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.
Terry Jones: Inside the Koran Burner’s Church | Leon Dische Becker | September 11, 2010 | THE DAILY BEAST
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.
A Sheaf of Corn | Mary E. MannAll the more reason for writing to you, in spite of cold feet and the vilest pens in the world.
George Eliot's Life, Vol. I (of 3) | George EliotA pair of boots, manifestly on a telegraph-boy's cold feet, play a devil's tattoo on the sheltered doorstep.
Somehow Good | William de Morgan
British Dictionary definitions for cold feet
informal loss or lack of courage or confidence
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
Cultural definitions for 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.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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