timid

The timid and cowardly do have a point, though: Americans, by and large, remain horrid on the issue of treating immigrants with dignity.

Its inhabitants are those of “there will always be an England” England: stern vicars, timid curates, lords and earls, penniless titled wastrels living on allowances from their uncles, imperious aunts, upper-crust twits.

But without it—if it falters, if it remains timid or fragmented—what dies is not only democracy as we know it, but the very possibility of imagining it anew.

As the titular character of “The Amateur,” Charlie comes off as timid and cautious, both at home and in his professional life as a decoder at the CIA.

Their side had struggled to create chances in a timid first half and were punished.