畏缩
wèi suō · HSK 7
to cower
🐢 畏 fear + 缩 shrink = shrink back in fear; to cower or flinch
畏 means to fear or dread; 缩 means to shrink, contract, or pull back (a turtle 缩 its head into its shell). Together: pull back out of fear — to cower, flinch, quail, or recoil.
缩 — silk radical 糹 + 宿 (lodge, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The silk radical 糹 carries the meaning, since shrinking and tightening were associated with drawing in cords or fabric. The right side 宿 (sù) supplies the sound. The original sense of binding cloth tight extended to the modern meaning 'to shrink' or 'contract.'