Liliputin- 5054

I got cold feet when I learned that someone planned to hold my feet to the fire ... "
Baron Muenchhausen

Liliputins. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2021/11/24/7101

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Cold Feet”
Having “cold feet” means to be nervous or scared, usually of a significant upcoming event. This term possibly comes from the physical signs of anxiety—sweaty, cold feet.

get cold feet
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia.
get cold feet
To experience nervousness or anxiety before one attempts to do something, often to the extent that one tries to avoid it.
I wasn't nervous until the morning of my wedding, but everyone assured me that I had just gotten cold feet.
Good luck getting her out on stage—she always gets cold feet before a performance.
See also: cold, feet, get
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
cold feet, get
Also, have cold feet. Retreat from an undertaking; lose one's nerve. For example, I got cold feet when I learned the trip involves white-water rafting, or Don't count on including her-she's been known to have cold feet in the past. The origin of this term has been lost. In early 17th-century Italy it meant to be short of money, but that sense has never been used in English. [Late 1800s]
See also: cold, get
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
get cold feet or have cold feet
COMMON If you get cold feet or have cold feet about something you have planned to do, you become nervous about it and not sure that you want to do it. My boyfriend got cold feet about being in a committed relationship. Leaving Ireland wasn't easy and I had cold feet about it a couple of times.
See also: cold, feet, get
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
get/have cold ;feet (informal) no longer want to continue what you intended or have started to do because you are nervous or afraid: Do you still want to do this parachute jump or are you getting cold feet? OPPOSITE: take the plunge
See also: cold, feet, get, have
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
cold feet, to get/have
To be timid; to back off from some undertaking. This expression appears to date from the nineteenth century, at least in its present meaning. In the early seventeenth century it was an Italian proverb that meant to have no money; it was so used by Ben Jonson in his play Volpone. The source of the more recent meaning is obscure. Some believe it comes from soldiers retreating in battle because their feet are frozen. Another source cites a German novel of 1862 in which a card player withdraws from a game because, he claims, his feet are cold.
See also: cold, get, have, to
The Dictionary of Clich;s by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer


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hold someone's feet to the fire (redirected from keep someone's feet to the fire)
hold (one's) feet to the fire
To put pressure on one to do, say, or consent to something.
The journalist has spent the last year holding the prime minister's feet to the fire in relation to her campaign promises about wealth distribution.
People have been holding her feet to the fire to take the images down from the website.
See also: feet, fire, hold, to
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
hold someone's feet to the fire
Also, keep someone's feet to the fire. Pressure someone to consent to or undertake something, as in The only way you'll get him to agree is to hold his feet to the fire. This idiom alludes to an ancient test of courage or form of torture in which a person's feet were so placed. It began to be used figuratively in the second half of the 1900s. Also see hold a gun to someone's head.
See also: feet, fire, hold, to
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
See also:
hold (one's) feet to the fire
hold feet to the fire


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