Get cold feet Informal

To suddenly lose the courage or confidence to go through with something already planned, often because of fear or last-minute doubt.

It’s especially associated with big, high-stakes commitments — a wedding, a risky business deal, a major decision — rather than small everyday choices.

The earliest documented English use is in Stephen Crane’s 1896 novel “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,” in the line “I knew this was the way it would be. They got cold feet.” The phrase’s roots may cross a language boundary, though: a 1912 letter identified a strikingly similar figurative use in German novelist Fritz Reuter’s 1862 book, where a card player with “cold feet” fears his luck has turned, suggesting the expression may have entered American English through German immigrant communities before Crane’s novel popularized it. An even earlier, looser parallel appears in Ben Jonson’s 1605 play “Volpone,” which references an Italian proverb about being “cold on my feet” to mean being out of money — a related image of losing one’s footing, though not an exact match for the modern meaning. By the early 1900s the phrase was common on American college campuses and was later applied widely to soldiers reluctant to go into battle, cementing its link to fear-driven withdrawal from a commitment.

She got cold feet the night before the wedding.

He was about to sign the contract but got cold feet at the last second.

Don’t get cold feet now — we’ve come too far to quit.

A: “Are you still moving to another city?” B: “I’m getting cold feet, honestly.”