fraidy-cat


Also found in: Idioms.

fraidy-cat

n
baby talk US someone who frightens easily or is afraid of many things
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

fraid•y-cat

(ˈfreɪ diˌkæt)

n. Informal.
a timid, easily frightened person.
[1905–10; fraid (aph. form of afraid) + -y1]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
He knows it is a scary boy with "eyes that awful color the sky is when you wake up in the middle of the day and can't see, it's so bright out." His mother pooh-poohs his worries, and his snarky older brother, Buster, says he's a fraidy-cat.
EDUCATION EXTRA
Like dor, like sterway, Jaime thinks, with his hand in his pants, like he has to go to the potty but he doesn't really have to, and he says, "Mees Yonson." But Miss Johnson makes the Be Quiet sign and everybody knows fraidy-cat Jay-me, fraidy-cat, fraidy-cat.
Close your eyes 1960
a fraidy-cat feline--in the care of a near-senile sitter.
'Pet' project hits the Spot
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