chicken-livered

adjective

chick·​en-liv·​ered ˈchi-kən-ˌli-vərd 

: fainthearted, cowardly

Synonyms

• chicken
• chickenhearted
• cowardly
• craven
• dastardly
• gutless
• lily-livered
• milk-livered [archaic]
• poltroon
• pusillanimous
• recreant
• spineless
• unheroic
• yellow

Examples of chicken-livered in a Sentence

a chicken-livered newspaper editor who has been afraid to take on the town's powerful business elite

Word History

First Known Use

1804, in the meaning defined above