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 But with no obvious action plan in sight, some of Tesla’s biggest supporters are beginning to get cold feet. Ryan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 19 Apr. 2024 Jasmine Pineda doesn’t have cold feet going into her honeymoon with Gino Palazzolo on this week’s episode of 90 Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After. Liza Esquibias, Peoplemag, 22 Mar. 2024 Curing cold feet with machine learning Though good, there’s nothing particularly novel about the ID.7’s seats. Tim Stevens, The Verge, 1 Mar. 2024 Her small belly, her chest, her forehead, her hands, her cold feet bare in the night. Mosab Abu Toha, The New York Review of Books, 29 Feb. 2024 Of course, with each passing day, there is a chance that teams get cold feet and back out of talks, but Snell's status as a two-time Cy Young winner should ensure Snell a solid deal eventually. Jon Hoefling, USA TODAY, 7 Feb. 2024 An advertiser who agreed to run a pitch gets cold feet, doesn’t like the commercial that was supposed to run, or needs to claw back the money being spent. Brian Steinberg, Variety, 8 Feb. 2024 Aaron Pierre, who was tapped for the role of Malcolm X, got cold feet, too. Kalia Richardson, Rolling Stone, 1 Feb. 2024 Nothing can ruin a ski trip quicker than cold feet. David Moses, Travel + Leisure, 5 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cold feet.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1893, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of cold feet was in 1893

Dictionary Entries Near cold feet

Cite this Entry

“Cold feet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cold%20feet. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on cold feet

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!