timorous
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Late Middle English timorous (“(adjective) fearful, frightened; causing fear, dreadful, terrible; deferential, modest; (noun) timid people collectively”), borrowed from Old French temoros, temorous, from Medieval Latin timōrōsus, from timōr- (the stem of Latin timor (“dread, fear”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; prone to’). Timor is derived from timeō (“to be afraid of, fear”) (further origin uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *temH- (“dark”)) + -or (suffix forming third-declension masculine abstract nouns). Doublet of timoroso.
Inflected forms:
form: more timorous
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most timorous
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: timerous
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: timourous
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Tending to be easily frightened; shy, timid.
pos: adj
examples: But thou now O temerous ⁊ weake ſely ſhepe, thynke yt ſufficient for thee, onely to walke after me, which am thy ſhepehearde ⁊ gouernor: […]
Thys faute of puſillanimitye and tymorous mynde, letteth a man alſo mani tymes from the doynge of manye good thynges, whyche (if he tooke a good ſtomake to hym in the truſt of Gods helpe) he were wel able to do.
[T]hey might thank themſelves onely, & their ovvn timerous conceits & imaginations, that ſuch things vvere ſo dread & terrible.
[I]n the ſtudy of the reign of Theodoſius [I], vve are reduced to illuſtrate the partial narrative of Zoſimus, by the obſcure hints of fragments and chronicles, by the figurative ſtyle of poetry or panegyric, and by the precarious aſſiſtance of the eccleſiaſtical vvriters, vvho, in the heat of religious faction, are apt to deſpiſe the profane virtues of ſincerity and moderation. Conſcious of theſe diſadvantages, vvhich vvill continue to involve a conſiderable portion of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, I ſhall proceed vvith doubtful and timorous ſteps.
VVee ſleekit, covvrin, tim'rous beaſtie, / Oh, vvhat a panic's in thy breaſtie!
Animals of the hare kind, like all others that feed entirely upon vegetables, are inoffenſive and timorous. As Nature furniſhes them vvith a moſt abundant ſupply, they have not that rapacity after food remarkable in ſuch as are often ſtinted in their proviſion.
His troops murmured at this timorous policy, and the people of the south, on whom the charges of the expeditions fell with peculiar heaviness, from their neighbourhood to the scene of the operations, complained that "the war was carried on against them, not against the infidel."
[I]n his later years, he [James II of England] repeatedly, at conjunctures such as have often inspired timorous and delicate women with heroic courage, showed a pusillanimous anxiety about his personal safety.
[H]e was one of those weak creatures full of a shifty cunning—who face neither God nor man, who face not even themselves, void of pride, timorous, anæmic, hateful souls.
"Upon my word," said Micky, "only I was timorous i' puttin' the good people to too much throuble, I was on the point i' mentionin' the same meself."
He turned a long you are wrong gaze on Stephen of timorous dark pride at the soft impeachment, with a glance also of entreaty for he seemed to glean in a kind of a way that it wasn't all exactly …
The suspect was a man of forty, with a grey, timorous face, dressed only in a ragged longyi kilted to the knee, beneath which his lank, curved shins were specked with tick-bites.
gloss: Feeling fear; afraid, fearful, frightened.
pos: adj
tags: archaic
examples: He [the Devil] marketh well […] mennes complexions within thẽ [them], health, or ſicknes, good humours or badde, by which they be light hearted or lumpiſh, ſtrong hearted, or faynt & fieble of ſpirite, bolde and hardy, or timorous and fearefull of courage.
Men call her Athliot: vvho cannot be / More vvretched made by infelicitie, / Vnleſſe ſhe here had an immortall breath / Or liuing thus, liu'd timerous of death.
VVeaker I am, vvoe is mee, and vvorſe then you, / You have not ſinn'd, nor need be timorous, […]
Remember, my ſon, that human life is the journey of a day. […] VVe approach them [the gardens of pleasure] vvith ſcruple and heſitation; vve enter them, but enter timorous and trembling; and alvvays hope to paſs through them vvithout loſing the road of virtue, vvhich vve for a vvhile keep in our ſight, and to vvhich vve propoſe to return.
[H]e had none of his old cronies to "tackle," and was rather timorous on venturing on Joe; […]
gloss: Fastidious in dressing.
pos: adj
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: Fired with intense feeling; passionate.
pos: adj
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: Hard to manage; difficult, tiresome.
pos: adj
tags: UK
dialectal
gloss: Causing dread or fear; dreadful, terrible.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: Well, having past halfe way downewards, wee came to the most scurrile and timorous Discent of the whole passage, where with much difficuty, I set safe the foure Germanes in our narrow Rode hewen out of the craggy Hill; […]
gloss: Humble, modest; also, showing reverence; respectful, reverent, reverential.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
Related words: timorsome
Derived words: overtimorous
timorously
timorousness
timorous schizotypal
Translations: