timorous

adj

1. 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.”

   “[T]hey might thank themſelves onely, & their ovvn timerous conceits & imaginations, that ſuch things vvere ſo dread & terrible.”

   “VVee ſleekit, covvrin, tim'rous beaſtie, / Oh, vvhat a panic's in thy breaſtie!”

2. (archaic)Feeling 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.”

   “VVeaker I am, vvoe is mee, and vvorſe then you, / You have not ſinn'd, nor need be timorous, […]”

   “Remember, my ſon, that human life is the journey of a day. […] VVe approach them [the gardens of pleasure] vvith ſcruple and heſitation; vve enter them, but enter timorous and trembling; and alvvays hope to paſs through them vvithout loſing the road of virtue, vvhich vve for a vvhile keep in our ſight, and to vvhich vve propoſe to return.”

   “[H]e had none of his old cronies to "tackle," and was rather timorous on venturing on Joe; […]”

3. (UK, dialectal)Fastidious in dressing.
4. (UK, dialectal)Fired with intense feeling; passionate.
5. (UK, dialectal)Hard to manage; difficult, tiresome.
6. (obsolete)Causing 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; […]”

7. (obsolete)Humble, modest; also, showing reverence; respectful, reverent, reverential.