Meaning

A person who lacks courage..

Definitions by Sense

1. A person who lacks courage.
2. Cowardly.
3. (heraldry, of a lion) Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To intimidate.

Example Sentences

Near-synonyms: big baby, baby

1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part II Chapter IV, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling He tortured himself to find out how he could make his declaration to her, and always halting between the fear of displeasing her and the shame of being such a coward, he wept with discouragement and desire. Then he took energetic resolutions, wrote letters that he tore up, put it off to times that he again deferred.

Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […]

c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 4, He rais’d the house with loud and coward cries.

It is a coward and servile humour, for a man to disguise and hide himselfe under a maske, and not dare to shew himselfe as he is.

Invading Fears repel my Coward Joy; And Ills foreseen the pleasant Bliss destroy.

The first he coped with was their captain, whom / His sword sent headless to seek out a tomb. / This cowarded the valour of the rest, […]

Word Forms

• cowards
• more coward
• most coward
• cowarding
• cowarded

Synonyms for coward

Antonyms for coward

Related Words

When Should You Use Coward?

Use coward when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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