CHICKEN OUT

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Meaning:

Remove oneself from an obligation

Example:

He bowed out when he heard how much work was involved

Synonyms:

back down; back off; bow out; chicken out; pull out

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "chicken out" is one way to...):

retire; withdraw (lose interest)

Verb group:

get out; pull out (move out or away)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "chicken out"):

resile (pull out from an agreement, contract, statement, etc.)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP