A person who is fearful

Send us feedback. See more words from the same century. Accessed 11 Nov. More Definitions for fearful. See the full definition for fearful in the English Language Learners Dictionary. Nglish: Translation of fearful for Spanish Speakers. Britannica English: Translation of fearful for Arabic Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Log in Sign Up. Save Word. Definition of fearful. Synonyms for fearful Synonyms alarming , dire , direful , dread , dreadful , fearsome , forbidding , formidable , frightening , frightful , ghastly , hair-raising , horrendous , horrible , horrifying , intimidating , redoubtable , scary , shocking , spine-chilling , terrible , terrifying Visit the Thesaurus for More.

Choose the Right Synonym for fearful fearful , apprehensive , afraid mean disturbed by fear. I believe that the answers of "jumpy" and "skittish" are closer to what the OP was looking for. Timid is the best answer here. It means exactly what the OP asked for. I think chicken-hearted is a better option than timid as timid can also mean shy or lacking confidence and jumpy is usually used in the context of being anxious or excitable: chicken-hearted Oxford dictionaries Easily frightened; cowardly.

Cowardly Coward [ kou -erd] noun 1. Ghotir Ghotir 1 1 gold badge 6 6 silver badges 10 10 bronze badges. Ryan Slap my wrist. I read that, read through the answers, and somehow totally forgot We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations.

Answers that don't include explanations may be removed. For an introduction to the site, take the Tour. For help writing a good answer, see How to Answer. Wuss often means someone who is weak or ineffective. Apprehensive uneasy or fearful about something that might happen: Dictionary. Consider the second meaning of spooky : of a person or animal easily frightened; nervous. I've mostly heard this in reference to animals, as in: "Those deer are spooky; they'll run away as soon as you start walking toward them!

Kevin Workman Kevin Workman Skeletons are spooky; calling myself spooky because they spooked me sounds kooky. Deer for example are the second meaning of spooky. Unless the skeletons are easily frightened or the deer are creepy, of course.

Bob is such a feartie - Scots colloquial. From Oxford Dictionaries : Scots informal : A coward or timid person. Kit Z. Sue Sue 19 1 1 bronze badge. AdamO AdamO 6 6 bronze badges. Featured on Meta. Now live: A fully responsive profile. This word is the name of a flower or formerly a woman. Therefor, if you call a man a pansy the general connotation is that he is weak and effeminate sorry girls, but many of these words are associated with the female gender being fearful—not our opinion here at RealLife.

Be careful, as nowadays this expression can be extremely offensive when referring to a male homosexual. This word was apparently created by college students in the s, but the reason is not exactly known, however, it might refer to a character from the popular Popeye comic.

Calling someone a wimp might not only indicate their cowardice, but also that they are strange or nerdy. There is also a phrasal verb that you can use, to wimp out. This means to not do something because of fear. This word is derived from sister sis , and is used to call especially a man girly, effeminate and weak. Wuss or wussy is a euphemism [a nicer, less offensive word] for pussy see below. In English, we commonly use animal comparisons to describe the attributes of people. If someone is chicken, it means they are a coward.

It makes sense, right? Weak is just the opposite of strong, so it makes sense, if someone is weak they are probably easily scared. This is another common insult when used in this context. This is an expression referring to a dog —when they get scared, they generally put their tail between their legs. So if you have your tail between your legs, you appear frightened or cowardly, or even defeated and humiliated. If someone is acting cowardly, you could use this phrasal verb to help motivate and energize him or her.

This term is somewhat derogatory, but is still fairly common. This is another rather sexist term, however it is not uncommon. Getting into vulgar terms, this is commonly used to motivate someone male or female to stop being a coward and take action.

Remember before I said that there are more terms referring to cats? Well the vulgar term pussy originally means a kitten [baby cat], however you will hardly ever hear it used to actually talk about a cat. Nowadays, this term almost always refers to the vagina. Therefor, using it as an insult would be equivalent to calling someone effeminate.

Also a way of calling someone weak. Pussy has no relation to feminizing a man. It is often used to refer to someone has weak or cowardly.

SAome terms are netter to use in formal situations and other among close friends. Thank you for reading! Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.