timorous
Tending to be easily frightened; shy, timid.
Adjective
- Tending to be easily frightened; shy, timid.
- But thou now O temerous ⁊ weake ſely ſhepe, thynke yt ſufficient for thee, onely to walke after me, which am thy ſhepehearde ⁊ gouernor: […] - 1534 (date written), Thomas More, “A Treatice vpon the Passion of Chryste...
- Thys faute of puſillanimitye and tymorous mynde, letteth a man alſo mani tymes from the doynge of manye good thynges, whyche (if he tooke a good ſtomake to hym in the truſt of Gods helpe) he were wel able to do. - 1534...
- [T]hey might thank themſelves onely, & their ovvn timerous conceits & imaginations, that ſuch things vvere ſo dread & terrible. - 1600, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book II]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane...
Synonyms: timorsome
Antonyms: adventurous mettlesome aweless bad bold brass-balled chivalrous courageous daredevil daring dauntless doughty fearless fortitudinous gallant gutsy heroic intrepid lionhearted orped plucky stalwart stalworth stouthearted
- Feeling fear; afraid, fearful, frightened.
- He [the Devil] marketh well […] mennes complexions within thẽ [them], health, or ſicknes, good humours or badde, by which they be light hearted or lumpiſh, ſtrong hearted, or faynt & fieble of ſpirite, bolde and hardy,...
- Men call her Athliot: vvho cannot be / More vvretched made by infelicitie, / Vnleſſe ſhe here had an immortall breath / Or liuing thus, liu'd timerous of death. - 1616, William Browne, “The Fifth Song”, in Britannia’s...
- VVeaker I am, vvoe is mee, and vvorſe then you, / You have not ſinn'd, nor need be timorous, […] - a. 1631 (date written), J[ohn] Donne, “Sonnet VIII”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […]...
Synonyms: apprehensive afeared afraid alarmed anxious chicken concerned creeped out fearful frightened frit horrified mortified panicked scared shocked startled terrified timorous worried wary
Antonyms: brave daredevil dauntless temerarious untimorous unafraid unruffled unterrified
- Fastidious in dressing.
- Fired with intense feeling; passionate.
- Hard to manage; difficult, tiresome.
- Causing dread or fear; dreadful, terrible.
- Well, having past halfe way downewards, wee came to the most scurrile and timorous Discent of the whole passage, where with much difficuty, I set safe the foure Germanes in our narrow Rode hewen out of the craggy Hill;...
- Humble, modest; also, showing reverence; respectful, reverent, reverential.
Origin
From Late Middle English timorous (“(adjective) fearful, frightened; causing fear, dreadful, terrible; deferential, modest; (noun) timid people collectively”), borrowed from Old French temoros, temorous, from Medieval Latin timōrōsus, from timōr- (the stem of Latin timor (“dread, fear”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; prone to’). Timor is derived from timeō (“to be afraid of, fear”) (further origin uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *temH- (“dark”)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns). Doublet of timoroso.