cold feet
Nervousness or anxiety felt before one attempts to do something. I wasn't nervous until the morning of my wedding, but everyone assured me that it was just cold feet. Good luck getting her out on stage—she always gets cold feet before a performance. It's normal to have cold feet when you're making a big life change like this.
get cold feet
To experience nervousness or anxiety before one attempts to do something, often to the extent that one tries to avoid it. I wasn't nervous until the morning of my wedding, but everyone assured me that I had just gotten cold feet. Good luck getting her out on stage—she always gets cold feet before a performance. It's normal to get cold feet when you're making a big life change like this.
have cold feet
To experience nervousness or anxiety before one attempts to do something, often to the extent that one tries to avoid it. I wasn't nervous until the morning of my wedding, but everyone assured me that I just had cold feet. Good luck getting her out on stage—she always has cold feet before a performance. It's normal to get cold feet when you're making a big life change like this.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
*cold feet
Fig. fear of doing something; cowardice at the moment of action. (*Typically: get ~; have ~; give someone ~.) The bridegroom got cold feet on the day of the wedding. Sally said I should try skydiving, but I had cold feet.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
get cold feet
or have cold feet
COMMON If you get cold feet or have cold feet about something you have planned to do, you become nervous about it and not sure that you want to do it. My boyfriend got cold feet about being in a committed relationship. Leaving Ireland wasn't easy and I had cold feet about it a couple of times.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
cold feet
loss of nerve or confidence.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
cold feet
n. a wave of timidity or fearfulness. Suddenly I had cold feet and couldn’t sing a note.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
cold feet, to get/have
To be timid; to back off from some undertaking. This expression appears to date from the nineteenth century, at least in its present meaning. In the early seventeenth century it was an Italian proverb that meant to have no money; it was so used by Ben Jonson in his play Volpone. The source of the more recent meaning is obscure. Some believe it comes from soldiers retreating in battle because their feet are frozen. Another source cites a German novel of 1862 in which a card player withdraws from a game because, he claims, his feet are cold.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer