faint-heart

plural faint-hearts · alternative faintheart

1. A cowardly, faint-hearted person; one who is irresolute or fearful.

   Beowulf had scarcely died before the faint-hearts came crawling out of their burrows.

   1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 48

   1 more example

   We are going to need all forces in the conditions that we have to face, and in the fight that we have before us we want no half-hearted supporters, no vacillators, no faint-hearts.

   2014, Roger Moorhouse, The Devils' Alliance: Hitler's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941, The Bodley Head