Wimping

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To display weakness or cowardice in response to a situation
2. To express an unwillingness or reluctance to confront challenges
3. To behave in a way that is excessively timid or lacking in resolve

Etymology: The verb "wimping" is simply the present participle of "wimp", so its story is really the story of the noun. Its most likely origin is a clipping of "whimper", the sound of a faint, complaining cry, though the link is uncertain. By the 1930s the term was established in American speech, fixed in the public imagination by two radio and cartoon characters. J. Wellington Wimpy, the devious but cowardly hanger-on in the Popeye cartoons, showed the name's flavour of weakness dressed up as cunning. Wallace Wimple, the soft-spoken character from the radio show Fibber McGee and Molly, shows the other side of it, a gentle man who never stands his ground.

Synonyms: cowering, shying, faltering, hesitating, quailing

Antonyms: braving, facing, confronting, challenging, daring