sb. and a. [f. FAINT a. + HEART.] A. sb.

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  † 1.  The fact or condition of having a faint heart; want of spirit. Obs.

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1580.  North, Plutarch (1676), 760. They [men] … through faint-heart, and lack of courage, do change their first mind.

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  2.  One who has a faint heart; a coward.

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1870.  Daily News, 16 Nov. ‘You are all fainthearts, not Frenchmen.’

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  B.  adj. Faint-hearted, timid, spiritless, cowardly.

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1590.  Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., III. ii. That coward faint-heart runaway.

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1596.  Spenser, F. Q., IV. x. 17.

        From fearefull cowards entrance to forstall
And faint-heart fooles.

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1870.  Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 501. O faint-heart thief of love.

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