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Glite Dictionary
🙀 A fearful person 🙀 Easily frightened 😹 Teasing exclamation
scaredy-cat

scaredy-cat

2 8.4
A teasing shout said to someone who is afraid
  • interjection
  • /ˈskɛrdiˌkæt/
  • Offensive
translation icon : cobarde
  • When it comes to girls, you're a big old scaredy-cat.

Examples

  • Don't be a scaredy-cat; it's just a movie.

  • Now open the book, scaredy-cat.

    Goosebumps (2015)

  • Stop being such a scaredy-cat!

    A Troll in Central Park (1994)

  • Jessica, I didn't know you would be such a scaredy-cat.

    Imaginary (2024)

  • You big scaredy-cat!

    The Wiz (1978)

  • You're acting like a real scaredy-cat by refusing to try the roller coaster.

  • Come on, stop being such a scaredy-cat and take the first step.

How Insulting

to call someone a wuss
  • Offensive
1 8.8
scaredy-cat
  • Offensive
2 8.4
timid
1 3.5

Surface Forms

scaredy-cat main

Morphology

scaredy-cat = scaredy + cat (transparent) = scaredy + cat

Used as an interjection to tease someone; the exclamation is derived from the same colloquial compound and is inferable from its parts.

Etymology

Scaredy-cat comes from the simple words scare ('to frighten') and cat ('the animal'), and people often say it to tease a friend who seems afraid. So, as an exclamation, shouting scaredy-cat is a playful way to mock someone for hesitating or being scared.