Gutless means lacking courage. A gutless performance, gutless and weak, too gutless to say.
It is blunt and insulting, and it is aimed at somebody who could have acted and did not — which is what separates it from frightened. Sports writing uses it constantly. Note guts, meaning courage, which is the positive form; and that -less means without, as always.
1adjectivegutlessLacking courage.
“It was gutless of him to end the relationship by text message.”
gutless is a quality of cowardice.
Also accepted in games: cowardly
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰewd- — to pour
Proto-Germanic
*gut-
Old English
gutt
Middle English
gut
English
gut
English, today
gutless
Built from
From gut + -less. gut comes from Middle English gut, gutte, gotte, from Old English gutt (usually in plural guttas (“guts, entrails”)), from Proto-Germanic gut-, from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰewd- (“to pour”). Related to English gote (“drain”), Old English ġēotan (“to pour”). More at gote, yote. The verb is from Middle English gutten, gotten (“to gut”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA