chicken out

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chicken out (third-person singular simple present chickens out, present participle chickening out, simple past and past participle chickened out)

1. (idiomatic) To shy away from a daring task; to decline, refuse, or avoid something due to fear or uncertainty.

   We almost convinced his dad to ride the roller coaster, but he chickened out when he saw how high it went.

   • 2022 June 29, K Shanmugam, “Hard Talk: K. Shanmugam: Will Singapore have to choose between the US and China?”, in BBC‎:

     I dismiss Reporters Without Borders. Completely nonsensical. We invited them in for a select committee hearing, and in the true heritage of free speech, they chickened out.

• bottle out
• wuss out
• wimp out
• bottle it (back out, avoid the challenge)