COWARDLY • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Cowardly

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/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

Share |

"Cowardly" Quotes from Famous Books

... soon, instead of desiring to proceed to Switzerland, the major part of the multitude, weak-minded women, and dastardly men, desired to return to Paris, and, by ranging themselves under the banners of the so called prophet, and by a cowardly worship of the principle of evil, to purchase respite, as they hoped, from impending death. The discord and tumult induced by these conflicting fears and passions, detained Adrian. It required all his ardour in pursuit of an ...

— The Last Man • Mary Shelley

... a rebellion burst forth in Stambul against Sultan Achmed III., whose cowardly hesitation to take the field against the advancing hosts of the victorious Persians had revolted both the army and the people. The rebellion began in the camp of the Janissaries, and the ringleader was ...

— Halil the Pedlar - A Tale of Old Stambul • Mr Jkai

... as I said it, utterly ashamed of my cowardly quibbling with death. What in the name of God could possibly ...

— Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 • Various

... and that in no gentle strains," returned the Pilot, scornfully, "when a whole people have quailed at it, the craven cowardly wretches flying before the man they had wronged. I have lived to bear the banners of the new republic proudly in sight of the three kingdoms, when practised skill and equal arms have in vain struggled to pluck it down. Ay! Alice, the echoes of my ...

— The Pilot • J. Fenimore Cooper

... argued quietly, rather severely, and then left him with the assurance that they relied on his sense of what was proper. He was amazed and secretly indignant at this combined attack. He thought it cowardly, unscrupulous; it resembled brigandage. He felt most acutely that no one had any right to demand from him that hundred pounds, and that they who did so transgressed one of those unwritten laws which govern social intercourse. Yet these transgressors ...

— The Matador of the Five Towns and Other Stories • Arnold Bennett

More quotes...