chicken out
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To withdraw or back down from a situation due to fear
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Rút lui hoặc lùi lại từ một tình huống vì sợ hãi
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: give up like a chicken
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He was going to skydive, but he chickened out at the last minute
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “chicken out” mean?
To withdraw or back down from a situation due to fear Literally: give up like a chicken
Is “chicken out” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.