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

Derived Forms

• ˈtimorousness, noun
• ˈtimorously, adverb

Other Words From

• timor·ous·ly adverb
• timor·ous·ness noun
• over·timor·ous adjective
• over·timor·ous·ly adverb
• over·timor·ous·ness noun
• un·timor·ous adjective
• un·timor·ous·ly adverb
• un·timor·ous·ness 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

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.

From Salon

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

From Washington Post

The court’s decision for the football coach should cause timorous adults, and the fragile young people they shape, to stop fueling today’s cancel culture and the demands for “safe spaces.”

From Washington Post

An outwardly gentle soul, but with a spine of steel, Fred was never too timorous to lay bare our view on public affairs, including public corruption and injustices.

From Washington Post

The first is the discovery by a timorous and eminently respectable architect of the nude body of a murdered man, neatly disposed in his bathtub, decorated with a pair of gold-rimmed pince-nez.

From New York Times