quail

verb/kweɪl/

Frequency rank: #11,410 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

to feel or show fear; to shrink back in fear.

Illustration for the English word “quail”

Example sentence

When the angry crowd began to shout, the young speaker started to quail at the podium.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 11,401–11,500