cold feet
38
4.3
- idiom
- /koʊld fiːt/
- Informal
:
miedo
- On the verge of seeing Metallica play in Las Vegas, Tom gets cold feet and declines to attend the show.
- get cold feet
But I think maybe he had a little cold feet.
- But I think maybe he had a little cold feet.
- And I think they just got cold feet and, you know, wanted to take a step back.
- Four or five months later, my company ES LS Board got cold feet without my being there and they accepted an offer from TRW to buy the company.
- Let's see, the first time I tried to deep fry Turkey, I got cold feet and I was just like, all right, I need to get Lewis to do it.
- And then, but after a while started to get cold feet in it.
Examples
-
After weeks of preparation, she suddenly developed cold feet about the wedding.
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We might get cold feet and change our minds.
Fiction book (1998) -
And I think they just got cold feet and, you know, wanted to take a step back.
-
Maybe I am just getting cold feet.
-
Looks like somebody got cold feet.
-
- Are you getting cold feet?
-
And Congress saw it, and some of the members are having cold feet about the final round of funding.
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I have never been engaged, but I have had cold feet about relationships I was involved in.
Blog text (25) -
I think your partner's got cold feet and isn't gonna show up.
-
So don't go getting cold feet.
Antonyms
How Brave
Surface Forms
Morphology
cold + feet
The literal words 'cold' and 'feet' (low temperature; body parts) do not directly convey 'a sudden loss of courage', so a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not predict the idiomatic meaning. Although some languages (e.g. German 'kalte Füße bekommen') use a similar image, the metaphorical link is language-specific and not transparently compositional for most learners.
Etymology
Cold feet may come from a simple image: very cold feet make you stop moving and not want to step forward. So people began using cold feet for someone who suddenly 'loses courage' or 'backs out' of a plan.