The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 4 letter word COLD FEET
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
C
O
L
D
F
E
E
T
More clues leading to the result COLD FEET
- Loss of confidence resulting from former charge in court
- Timidity caught by ancient poetry
- Previous charge in court bringing feeling of uncertainty
- Lack of bottle, but not hot dogs
- Loss of confidence in court retaining old charge for services
- Chilblains cause apprehension
- Unfriendly measures lead to loss of confidence
- Loss of guts from fish biting large parts of line
- Failure of nerve due to lack of adequate hose?
- Lack of nerves suffered by a penguin?
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Failure of nerve" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case failure of nerve = cold feet.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.