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Timorous means lacking confidence and easily — very close in meaning to , but a much more literary word. You meet it in novels, poems, older writing, and in journalism that is trying to sound elegant; you almost never hear it in ordinary conversation, and if you used it while chatting, people would notice. It describes both a person's nature ('a timorous little man') and a single act ('a timorous glance towards the door'). Like , it is also used about institutions and plans that are not bold enough — 'a timorous board of directors' — and there it is clearly a criticism. Two things give it a slightly old-fashioned flavour. One is Burns's famous line to a mouse, 'wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie', which many English speakers half-remember, so the word carries a faint echo of a small animal. The other is the legal phrase 'the timorous soul', from a famous judgment about who counts as a reasonable person. If you simply want to say someone is not brave, '' is the safer everyday choice; reach for timorous when the writing is meant to sound formal or a little grand.
膽怯的、怕事的（文言、書面語，比 timid 更文雅老派）。
組成From Old French temoros, from Medieval Latin timōrōsus: Latin timor 'dread, fear' plus the ending -ōsus meaning 'full of'. So it is literally 'full of fear'. That -ōsus is the same ending that reaches English as -ous.
同家族的字
- timidfrom the same Latin fear-verb timeō; the plain everyday version
- timorouslythe adverb built from this word
- timorousnessthe noun built from this word
- nervoussame -ous ending meaning 'full of', on a different root
原始詞典資料7 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
timorousadj/ˈtɪməɹəs/
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Tending to be easily frightened; shy, timid.
- But thou now O temerous ⁊ weake ſely ſhepe, thynke yt ſufficient for thee, onely to walke after me, which am thy ſhepehearde ⁊ gouernor: […]
- Thys faute of puſillanimitye and tymorous mynde, letteth a man alſo mani tymes from the doynge of manye good thynges, whyche (if he tooke a good ſtomake to hym in the truſt of Gods helpe) he were wel able to do.
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archaicFeeling fear; afraid, fearful, frightened.
- He [the Devil] marketh well […] mennes complexions within thẽ [them], health, or ſicknes, good humours or badde, by which they be light hearted or lumpiſh, ſtrong hearted, or faynt & fieble of ſpirite, bolde and hardy, or timorous and fearefull of courage.
- Men call her Athliot: vvho cannot be / More vvretched made by infelicitie, / Vnleſſe ſhe here had an immortall breath / Or liuing thus, liu'd timerous of death.
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dialectalFastidious in dressing.
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dialectalFired with intense feeling; passionate.
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dialectalHard to manage; difficult, tiresome.
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obsoleteCausing dread or fear; dreadful, terrible.
- Well, having past halfe way downewards, wee came to the most scurrile and timorous Discent of the whole passage, where with much difficuty, I set safe the foure Germanes in our narrow Rode hewen out of the craggy Hill; […]
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obsoleteHumble, modest; also, showing reverence; respectful, reverent, reverential.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。