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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
timorous
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Even a timorous bicyclist can relish the route.
▪ She was no helpless, timorous female.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Timorous

Timorous \Tim"or*ous\, a. [LL. timorosus, from L. timor fear; akin to timere to fear. See Timid.]

  1. Fearful of danger; timid; deficient in courage.
    --Shak.

  2. Indicating, or caused by, fear; as, timorous doubts. ``The timorous apostasy of chuchmen.''
    --Milman. [1913 Webster] -- Tim"or*ous*ly, adv. -- Tim"or*ous*ness, n.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
timorous

early 15c., from Middle French timoureus (14c.), from Medieval Latin timorosus "fearful," from Latin timor "fear, dread, apprehension, anxiety; religious awe, reverence," from timere "to fear, be afraid, dread," of unknown origin. Some early senses in English seem to show confusion with Middle English temerous "rash" (see temerity). Related: Timorously; timorousness.\n

Wiktionary
timorous

a. fearful, afraid, timid

WordNet
timorous

adj. timid by nature or revealing timidity; "timorous little mouse"; "in a timorous tone"; "cast fearful glances at the large dog" [syn: fearful, trepid]

Usage examples of "timorous".

While in this timorous, jealous disposition, the cry of a plot all on a sudden struck their ears: they were wakened from their slumber: and like men affrightened and in the dark, took every figure for a spectre.

The trustless, timorous lease of human life Warns me to hedge in my diplomacy.

Erratic puffs from the high land behind made her progress timorous at first, but soon the fairway was reached and a true breeze from Flensburg and the west took her in its friendly grip.

I wax old, and old men will oft embrace timorous counsels which, if there be wisdom and valiancy left in them, they soon renounce when the stress is overpast and they have leisure to afterthink them with a sad mind.

But what about those timorous souls who see the grisly headlines and bolt for the airport?

A pure Rada is beautiful, sensitive, timorous, and not over-intelligent.

How many a timorous and trustful mother is persuaded that the child of her affection will escape the dangers of the world by taking refuge in the cloister.

While Herlandia's radicals went too far, we can surely do better than those timorous compromisers back on New Terra or Florentina, making timid, minuscule changes by consensus only.

Yes, perhaps it was moonshine, which the amateur logicians held in contempt because it threatened so much they held dear -- their timorous certainty which was, when all was weighed up, certain of so very little.

Against the larger‑than‑life figures of Pia and Nayyar, kissing mangoes as they mouthed to playback music, the figure of a timorous, inadequately bearded man was seen, marching on to the stage beneath the screen, microphone in hand.

Now if magistrates confounding things should inquire also into hidden sacrileges, this inquisition would be directed to a kind of action that does not at all require it: the liberty of the subject would be subverted by arming the zeal of timorous as well as of presumptuous consciences against him.

Allahs will would be accomplished, whatever a lone Believer might do-but a True Believer was more likely to have a beneficent fate mapped out than was a person of timorous faith.

When he felt the timorous nudge of Briseis's cold nose on his ankle, he looked up to find Sia placidly watering house plants.

But soon this was no longer done in timorous whispers, but in an everyday tone of voice and with that satisfaction that people feel when they look back upon a disaster faced and withstood, a peril successfully overcome.