faint-hearted, a.
(ˌfeɪntˈhɑːtɪd)
[f. as prec. + -ed2.]
Having a faint heart; wanting energy, courage, or will to carry a thing through; timid, cowardly. Also absol.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 153 Feynt hertyd, vecors. 1535 Coverdale 1 Sam. xiii. 7 All the people were fayntharted after him. 1631 Gouge God's Arrows v. xi. 421 A few white⁓liverd, faint-hearted souldiers. 1723 De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 17, I find you are faint-hearted, and unfit for our trade. 1843 A. Bethune Sc. Fireside Stor. 54 Young fellows like you, are sometimes faint-hearted. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) IV. xviii. 145 A fainthearted..faction soon began to show itself among those of higher degree. |
| absol. a 1600 Hooker Eccl. Pol. (1617) 746 The punishment threatened..to the fearful and faint-hearted. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Goethe Wks. (Bohn) I. 395 The disadvantages of any epoch exist only to the faint-hearted. |
Hence
ˌfaint-ˈheartedly adv., in a fainthearted manner.
ˌfaint-ˈheartedness, the quality or state of being fainthearted; timidity, cowardice.
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Laschement..faint hartedly. Ibid., Couardise..fainthartednesse. 1605 Bp. Hall Medit. & Vows ii. §76 To finde such fainthartednes in my⁓selfe at the first conceit of death. 1671 H. M. tr. Erasmus Colloq. 110 But how many Christians dye very faint⁓heartedly? 1753 N. Torriano Gangr. Sore Throat 60 A Faint-heartedness..always accompanies Putrefaction and Insensibility. 1874 Motley Barneveld (1879) II. xi. 26 Baffled..by the faintheartedness of his nominal friends. 1876 Mrs. Whitney Lights & Ins. xi. 120 ‘It is such a responsibility to take’..I said, faint-heartedly. |