timorous

[tim-er-uhs]

adjective

1. full of fear; fearful.

   The noise made them timorous.

2. subject to fear; timid.

3. characterized by or indicating fear.

   a timorous whisper.

timorous

/ ˈtɪmərəs /

adjective

1. fearful or timid

2. indicating fear or timidity

Other Word Forms

• timorously adverb
• timorousness noun
• overtimorous adjective
• overtimorously adverb
• overtimorousness noun
• untimorous adjective
• untimorously adverb
• untimorousness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of timorous¹

1400–50; late Middle English < Medieval Latin timōrōsus ( Latin timōr- (stem of timor ) fear + -ōsus -ous )

Word History and Origins

Origin of timorous¹

C15: from Old French temoros, from Medieval Latin timōrōsus, from Latin timor fear, from timēre to be afraid

Synonym Study

See cowardly.

Example Sentences

She became the party’s spine and its sinew, holding together the Democrat’s many warring factions and standing firm at times the more timorous were prepared to back down.

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Haynesville companies are being more timorous than before because they need to hit their returns on investment, lest they lose hard-won investors.

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If you wish to be cynical, there are reasons why Murkowski — whose comments Monday quickly ricocheted across the country — may be more prepared to speak out against Trump than her timorous Republican peers.

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But even then, the right claimed that New Deal liberal traitors were subverting the fight against communism and that Dwight D. Eisenhower was too timorous to embark upon a real rollback strategy against communism.

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Is that what these legislators and “timorous adults” are doing?

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