cold feet
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.70 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A feeling of nervousness or anxiety causing one to reconsider a decision about an upcoming event.
Informal
noun
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cold, feet.
Example Sentences
- "The groom got cold feet before his wedding."
- "The sale was almost agreed, but now the prospective purchasers seem to be suffering from a bad case of cold feet."
- ""Eh, what!" cried Kurz, who had been winning [the card game] lately, "how can he get cold feet?" / "So?" said the rector, hotly, for he was determined to retain his winnings, "haven't I as good a right to cold feet as you? Don't you always get cold feet, at our club, when you have had good luck?" and he carried it out, he kept his cold feet, and his winnings, […]"
- ""It isn't our line of work; we're mountain-men," the old man faltered. […] "Aw! What you getting cold feet for now, when we've got a good job?" the long-legged youth whined. "I'm just getting onto the ropes. Bet I could make a lot of money in this country after I got acquainted. I think I'm going to like Seattle.""
- "Had not these courageous sailors put up such a thoroughgoing battle, and had not the Japanese admiral commanding gotten cold feet, we would have been dealt a crushing defeat."
- "The member for West Coast has introduced the Bill because the Government got cold feet. It got cold feet even after a select committee had heard a great deal of evidence and reported the evidence back to the House. […] The Government got cold feet. The Bill was stopped in its tracks, because entrenched interests in Federated Farmers began to twitch."
Etymology
Idiomatic sense possibly from a calque of German kalte Füße bekommen (“to get cold feet”), or of Lombard avegh minga frecc i pee (“to have no money”, literally “to be cold in the feet”) (Italian aver freddo ai piedi), said by a person who wishes to stop gambling, allegedly because the person now has cold feet due to being too poor to afford proper footwear.