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View synonyms for chicken out

chicken out

verb

  1. informal.
    intr, adverb to fail to do something through fear or lack of conviction
“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


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Idioms and Phrases

Back out from fear, lose one's nerve, as in In the end I chickened out and took the easier route down the mountain . Chicken is a popular synonym for “cowardly,” a usage arising in the 1600s and 1700s but then apparently abandoned until the 20th century. [ Slang ; c. 1930]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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