verb
- present participle of chicken: losing courage and backing down from something
Usage: informal
Examples
- He’s chickening out of the bungee jump at the last minute.
- Stop chickening out and just ask her to the dance.
- I was chickening out of giving the presentation until my friend encouraged me.
- She accused him of chickening out when things got difficult.
- The team captain said no chickening out during the championship game.
- After chickening out twice before, he finally took the driving test.