verb
- past tense of chicken out; to lose courage and decide not to do something
Usage: informal
Examples
- He chickened out of asking her to the dance.
- She chickened out at the last minute and didn’t jump off the diving board.
- They chickened out of the bungee jump after seeing how high it was.
- I almost chickened out of giving the speech, but I went through with it.
- Don’t chicken out now – you’ve come this far!
- He chickened out of the roller coaster ride.