Faint-hearted chap marginally improved (5)

I believe the answer is:

timid

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'faint-hearted' is the definition.
(I know that faint-hearted can be written as timid)

'chap marginally improved' is the wordplay.
'chap' becomes 'tim' (short for Timothy, man's name).
'marginally improved' becomes 'id' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'tim'+'id'='TIMID'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for timid that I've seen before include "Not assertive, retiring" , "Fearful - shy" , "Shrinking" , "Easily alarmed, shy" , "Gutless" .)

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