afraid of one's own shadow
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afraid of (one's) own shadow
Easily scared; jumpy; timid. Everyone was surprised that Janice led the meeting with confidence, as she normally seems afraid of her own shadow. Please don't take my sister to a haunted house on Halloween—she's afraid of her own shadow.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
afraid of one's own shadow
Very timid and fearful, as in Richard constantly worries about security; he's afraid of his own shadow. This hyperbole has been used in English since the early 1500s, and some writers believe it originated in ancient Greece.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
afraid of one's own shadow
Extremely timid, excessively fearful. In Richard III (ca. 1513), Sir Thomas More wrote, “Who may lette her feare her owne shadowe,” although a few years later Erasmus cited Plato as having said the same thing in Greek hundreds of years before. Henry David Thoreau used the phrase to describe the timidity of Concord’s town selectmen in refusing to toll the parish bell at John Brown’s hanging (1859), and by then it had been in use for at least two centuries.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
- afraid of (one's) own shadow
- afraid of own shadow
- afraid of your own shadow
- be afraid of (one's) (own) shadow
- be frightened of (one's) (own) shadow
- be frightened/nervous/scared of your own shadow
- be nervous of (one's) (own) shadow
- be scared of (one's) (own) shadow
- scare (one) out of (one's) wits
- scare the wits out of (one)