scaredy pants
someone who is easily frightened
TRANSLATION
scaredy pants = Angsthase (woerterbuch.info) --- GOOGLE INDEX scaredy pants: approximately 20,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The government also uses SCAREDY-PANTS tactics with young folks. The Federal Emergency Management Agency Web site for kids, for instance, features a hermit crab mascot named Herman, who, when faced with flood or fire, scurries like a scared crab to find a new shell to hide in. Couldn't the mascot be a wise, muscular Saint Bernard that helps people in disasters?
(The Washington Post)
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House Republicans had no trouble finding the requisite number of SCAREDY-PANTS Democrats to rack up 286 "ayes" for their bill -- eight more than the two-thirds margin needed to move a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court’s most recent (1989) affirmation of a First Amendment right to burn the American flag.
(The Huffington Post)
(The Washington Post)
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House Republicans had no trouble finding the requisite number of SCAREDY-PANTS Democrats to rack up 286 "ayes" for their bill -- eight more than the two-thirds margin needed to move a constitutional amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court’s most recent (1989) affirmation of a First Amendment right to burn the American flag.
(The Huffington Post)
Did you
know?
scaredy-pants
idiom
- someone who is easily frightened or excessively worried
(DH)
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WORD ORIGIN
Maybe you can't stomach the idea of going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Or you refuse to go down into the cellar at night. Or do you need three beers before getting up the courage to ride the Eurostar roller coaster at Oktoberfest? Then maybe you’re a scaredy pants.
Don’t feel bad though, you’re in good company. Even the most seemingly courageous person can be afraid. Legend has it that Napoleon suffered from aelurophobia, a fear of cats. Tennis star Andre Agassi is purported to have arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. Boxing great Muhammad Ali allegedly feared flying, but who would dare call him a scaredy pants?
So why call someone scaredy pants, and not scaredy socks or scaredy shirt? The only thing we know for sure is that scaredy pants derives from the idiom "to scare the pants off" someone. Socks and shirts, on the other hand, are reserved for other idioms:
blow your socks off = something you say if you think something is really exciting or good (You have to listen to this new CD. It’ll blow your socks off!)
keep your shirt on = a polite way of telling someone who is angry to stay calm and patient (Keep your shirt on. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.)
By the way, you can a "" instead of a scaredy pants…
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SYNONYMS
chicken, chicken-heart, chicken liver, coward, fraidy cat, invertebrate, jelly-fish, lily-liver, milksop, mollycoddle, scaredy cat, sissy, wimp, yellow-belly
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
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ANTONYMS
daredevil, hero, stalwart
( Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS TODAY
say something like:
"Don’t be such a scaredy pants. This isn’t the first time you’ve given a presentation to a large audience."
idiom
- someone who is easily frightened or excessively worried
(DH)
---
WORD ORIGIN
Maybe you can't stomach the idea of going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Or you refuse to go down into the cellar at night. Or do you need three beers before getting up the courage to ride the Eurostar roller coaster at Oktoberfest? Then maybe you’re a scaredy pants.
Don’t feel bad though, you’re in good company. Even the most seemingly courageous person can be afraid. Legend has it that Napoleon suffered from aelurophobia, a fear of cats. Tennis star Andre Agassi is purported to have arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. Boxing great Muhammad Ali allegedly feared flying, but who would dare call him a scaredy pants?
So why call someone scaredy pants, and not scaredy socks or scaredy shirt? The only thing we know for sure is that scaredy pants derives from the idiom "to scare the pants off" someone. Socks and shirts, on the other hand, are reserved for other idioms:
blow your socks off = something you say if you think something is really exciting or good (You have to listen to this new CD. It’ll blow your socks off!)
keep your shirt on = a polite way of telling someone who is angry to stay calm and patient (Keep your shirt on. I’ll be ready in a few minutes.)
By the way, you can a "" instead of a scaredy pants…
---
SYNONYMS
chicken, chicken-heart, chicken liver, coward, fraidy cat, invertebrate, jelly-fish, lily-liver, milksop, mollycoddle, scaredy cat, sissy, wimp, yellow-belly
(Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
ANTONYMS
daredevil, hero, stalwart
( Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus)
---
IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS TODAY
say something like:
"Don’t be such a scaredy pants. This isn’t the first time you’ve given a presentation to a large audience."
