Chickened

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Became afraid or lost courage in a difficult or risky situation
2. Failed to act bravely due to fear or hesitation
3. Showed reluctance or backed down because of fear or nervousness

Etymology: The verb "chicken out" is built on a bird that was young before it was ever a meal. The noun "chicken" comes from Old English "ċicen", which descends from a word for a young fowl, and its ancestry runs through a family of Germanic words related to "chick" and "kiken" (the Dutch "kuiken" and German "Küken" are cousins). The original sense was simply the young bird, and the word only gradually came to name the adult bird and then its meat. The sense of cowardice belongs to the verb, not the bird. "Chicken out" and its past form "chickened" describe backing away from something out of fear or nerves, as if the speaker had shrunk into the flock. The verb is a shortening of the phrase, with "out" added to mark the retreat, and the simple past "chickened" follows the regular pattern of English verbs ending in a consonant plus "-ed".

Synonyms: flinched, faltered, hesitated, wavered, backed down

Antonyms: braved, faced, confronted, dared, persisted