cold feet

plural noun

: apprehension or doubt strong enough to prevent a planned course of action

Examples of cold feet in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Desgorges is worried the images of violence spreading on social media and news channels could temporarily give American producers cold feet about working in France for the time being. — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 23 Oct. 2026

People with chronically cold feet are the most likely beneficiaries, Mathur noted, because the mechanism depends on warming feet that are too cool to release heat efficiently. — Hanna Wickes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Oct. 2026

But frescos don’t put shoes on a poor child’s cold feet and sketches of flying machines didn’t put Orville Wright in the sky. — Christopher Koopman, Fortune, 9 Oct. 2026

The paper added police were investigating whether the suspect got cold feet or whether making such a call was part of the plan. — Kara Fox, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1893, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for cold feet

• amit
• athlete
• backseat
• blackfeet
• broadsheet
• browbeat
• buckwheat
• compete
• compleat
• complete
• conceit
• concrete