gutless, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

gutless adj.

cowardly.

1915		E. Pound letter in Read Letters to James Joyce (1968) 45: This deluge of work by suburban counter-jumpers on the one hand and gut-less Oxford graduates or flunktuates or the other ... bah!
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 22: The faithful service he gave was pearl cast before mean, gutless, brainless, up-jumped swine.
1948		H. McCoy Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye in Four Novels (1983) 117: Wondering how anybody as nervous and gutless as that ever started doing business with criminals in the first place.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 217: You gutless bastard, don’t try to tell me different.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 25 Oct. in Proud Highway (1997) 405: I have always said San Francisco is the nation’s number one gutless city.
1968		J. Barlow Burden of Proof 100: The police were dishonest, but in a small, gutless, unimaginative way.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 109: It only takes a few to kick up a stink and the management are gutless.
1984		Tracks (Aus.) Aug. 3: You gutless wimps think you own the beach in your half-filled sluggoes and white thongs [Moore 1993].
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘Duck It’s the Silly Season’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] They’re [i.e. the police] are as gutless as the clowns with the shotguns.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 199: The publication [had] been neutered along the trail and allowed to flounder in gutless yuppie dross.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 15 Aug. 1: Bland, performed in a gutless style.
2002		T. Hauser Inside the Ropes with Jesse Ventura 298: During a stop in Rochester he calls lawmakers ‘gutless cowards’.
2004		(con. 1960s-70s) T. Taylor Top Fellas 26/1: Toting a weapon marked you as gutless.
2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] Johnny No Nuts was a gutless turd.
2020		G. Disher Consolation 213: Steer clear of Clara Ogilvie every day until she gave up. Gutless.

In compounds

gutless wonder (n.)

1. a coward.

1937		E. Hemingway To Have and Have Not 170: Quit stalling, you gutless wonder.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 56: You’re a gutless wonder, Christy.
1958		E. Aarons Gang Rumble (2021) 33: ‘So you’re just a yellow, snivelling punk [...] A gutless wonder’.
1960		(con. 1940s) D. MacCuish Do Not Go Gentle (1962) 202: That queer’s really a first class A-1 mother-rapin’ gutless wonder of a horse’s ass!
1974		D. Ireland Burn 117: Don’t you talk back to your father like that, you soft-belly, mealy-mouth gutless wonder.
1983		J. Ciardi A Second Browser’s Dict. 121: Gutless wonder. In WWII. A G.I. term of scorn for an officer who was gung ho on the parade ground but who tended to stay back in combat.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 127: There are [...] subtle gradations in the types of stupidity, thoughtlessness, hopelessness, incapacity and sheer ineptitude that may come in for verbal censure. A person may be: [...] a gutless wonder.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] ‘What about your ex?’ ‘He’s a gutless wonder’.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Irish Fandango [ebook] ‘You hooked up with Terry the gutless wonder’.
2021		C. Hammer Opal Country 398: ‘Some gutless wonder king-hit me from behind’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1996

(con. 1950s) in P. Doyle Get Rich Quick (2004) 15: Then he enquired as to the whereabouts of my gutless-wonder boyfriend.

3. in fig. use, a useless object.

1963

M. Anderson A River Rules My Life 195: [of a truck] Ron tried in several places to get the gutless wonder over the river, but without success.