yellow streak

noun

Informal.

1. a trait of cowardice in a person's character.

yellow streak

noun

1. informal,  a cowardly or weak trait, characteristic, or flaw in a person's nature

Word History and Origins

Origin of yellow streak¹

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

Another Jones signature is to paint a red or yellow streak on one side of the canvas or its top, perpendicular to the wall, so that when the light hits, a diffuse glow forms.

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At the 1908 International Exclusion League convention in Seattle, an American Federation of Labor official declared that the Stars and Stripes would never have “a yellow streak.”

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Covered in crunchy quinoa, toasted sesame seeds and flakes of kelp intensified with soy, it sits on a yellow streak of sauce made from aji amarillo.

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The newspaper checked it out with the local constable who confirmed that a dummy, half black, half white, with my name on it and a yellow streak painted down its back, was hanging from the wire.

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“It has a yellow color because there’s a yellow streak in the middle, somewhere between daffodil and lemon yellow,” she said.

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