chicken out
slang disapproving— phrasal verb with chicken uk/ˈtʃɪk.ɪn/us/ˈtʃɪk.ɪn/verb
to decide not to do something because you are too frightened:
I was going to go bungee jumping, but I chickened out.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Cowardly
- bottle
- bottle out
- chicken
- chickenshit
- coward
- craven
- fainthearted
- gutless
- lily-livered
- pusillanimous
- spineless
- timid
- timorous
- weak-kneed
- wimp
- wimp out
- yellow
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Avoiding action