COWARDLY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Cowardly

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/kˈaʊərdli/ Listen

adjective

Cowardly adj.

Wanting courage; basely or weakly timid or fearful; pusillanimous; spiritless. "The cowardly rascals that ran from the battle."

Proceeding from fear of danger or other consequences; befitting a coward; dastardly; base; as, cowardly malignity. "The cowardly rashness of those who dare not look danger in the face."

Synonyms: Timid; fearful; timorous; dastardly; pusillanimous; recreant; craven; faint-hearted; chicken-hearted; white-livered.

adverb

Cowardly adv. In the manner of a coward.

See images of 'Cowardly'

Etymology of 'Cowardly'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Cowardly" Quotes from Famous Books

... did not stretch a point and so save the life of Mr. Munday of Toowong. Butler underwent his term of imprisonment in Littleton Jail. There his reputation was most unenviable. He is described by a fellow prisoner as ill-tempered, malicious, destructive, but cowardly and treacherous. He seems to have done little or no work; he looked after the choir and the library, but was not above breaking up the one and smashing the other, ...

— A Book of Remarkable Criminals • H. B. Irving

... British troops, seasoned by a year's fighting. But Procter's sun had set and disgrace was about to overtake him. To Tecumseh, a chieftain who had waged war because of the wrongs suffered by his own people, the thought of flight in this crisis was cowardly and intolerable. When Procter announced that he proposed to seek refuge in retreat, Tecumseh told him to his face that he was like a fat dog which had carried its tail erect and now that it was frightened ...

— The Fight for a Free Sea: A Chronicle of the War of 1812 - The Chronicles of America Series, Volume 17 • Ralph D. Paine

... penalty, and it was not right that he should be punished twice for the same offence. They said that the King would be displeased, and it would be better to give up their liberties than to perish themselves. This cowardly plea Becket treated no better than it deserved, and brought them over to his side, so that they all answered the King, that their duty forbade them to comply with his demand; Henry put the question in ...

— Cameos from English History, from Rollo to Edward II • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... hero of this book assists in the extinction of this cowardly system, taking part in some of the sea fights which brought ...

— Round-about Rambles in Lands of Fact and Fancy • Frank Richard Stockton

... which were so expensive, on this paralyzed old plug. And often, in spite of the orders of Maitre Lucas, he would economize on the nag's food, only giving him half measure. Hatred grew in his confused, childlike mind, the hatred of a stingy, mean, fierce, brutal and cowardly peasant. ...

— Maupassant Original Short Stories (180), Complete • Guy de Maupassant

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