Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Exhibiting the characteristics of a coward, particularly ignoble fear: a cowardly surrender.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Wanting courage to face danger, or to incur harm or pain; timid; timorous; fearful; pusillanimous.
- Proceeding from fear of danger or harm; mean; base; befitting a coward: as, a cowardly action.
- Synonyms Dastardly, craven, faint-hearted, chicken-hearted.
- In the manner of a coward; dishonorably; basely.
Wiktionary
- adv. In the manner of a coward.
- adj. Showing cowardice. Lacking in courage, unacceptably fearful, usually meant with some implication of a lack of consideration for others.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Wanting courage; basely or weakly timid or fearful; pusillanimous; spiritless.
- adj. Proceeding from fear of danger or other consequences; befitting a coward; dastardly; base.
- adv. In the manner of a coward.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted
Etymologies
- From coward + -ly. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Another translation of the Bible uses the word cowardly instead of fearful.”
“The Ogaden rebels, meanwhile, issued a statement condemning what they called the "cowardly and cold-blooded attack".”
Voice of America: Ethiopia, UN Mount Joint Search Operation for Kidnapped Aid Workers
“I use the word "cowardly" because there's no other way to call someone who writes this and then hides behind an anonymous name.”
“They're America's allies in the war on terror but tonight Pakistani officials are slamming what they call a cowardly attack.”
“George W. Bush strongly condemning what he called the cowardly assassination of Benazir Bhutto.”
“The attorney for one of the accused denounced what he calls cowardly and anonymous leakers at the Pentagon.”
“However, strong reaction from the Palestinian Authority condemning this, as what they call a cowardly act.”
“Officials with UNAMID, the joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping mission, strongly condemned what they called cowardly acts of violence against the peacekeepers.”
“Instead, what he's seen so far are anonymous attacks in the form of mines and roadside bombings -- the mark of what he calls a cowardly adversary.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cowardly’.
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He Goes a-Pickarooning
Here be a trove of words and phrases associated (fore or aft) with picarooning / pickarooning, scavenged from Google Books citations.
The Prince Edward Island folksong Mick Riley inspi...wagabone, privateer, at every corner, up and down, pirate, expeditions, life, look, rascals, expedition, literary, adventurers and 53 more...
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Words that look like adverbs but aren't
manly, womanly, ungainly, slovenly, homily, costly, dastardly, family, sparkly, wrinkly, oily, orderly and 69 more...
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Fearlobes
EEK! Emotion words and words associated with fear. Let's avoid -phobia words.
terrified, threatened, paralyzed, afraid, tormented, frightened, scared, blench, worried, cowardly, fretful, menaced and 57 more...
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Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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words I like for one reason or another
nostalgia, corgi, ambiguous, anachronistic, bamboozled, eloquent, emporium, sacrosanct, nascent, obfuscate, miscellaneous, kaleidoscopic and 113 more...
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GRE Day 1
garble, reproduce (a mess..., Intrigue, Trick you. Your f..., Labyrinth, Break this word a..., timorous, Timid by nature, coy, Coy means shy, gi..., retiring, Retire means to a... and 9 more...
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Ozmopolitan Words
Words concerning anything Ozian...either from the original books or movie "The Wizard of Oz" or from the Broadway musical "Wicked."
galindafied, greenify, rejoicify, verdigris, swankified, emerald, liquification, ozian, oz, darlingest, momsie, popsical and 78 more...
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favs
oy vey, pugnacious, uncanny, daft, tosser, loo, arse, bloody, demented, rubbish, spiffy, unrealizable and 16 more...
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That's What She Said
not to me, lest ye get confused ;)
incompetent, loser, pathetic, shameful, awkward, tiny, little, sad, weak, insufficient, inadequate, lame and 21 more...
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Not-so-basic words.
postmeridian, post meridiem, ante meridiem, cataclysm, laconic, taciturn, reticent, concupiscence, strive, indigo, apricot, jaboticaba and 24 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for cowardly.
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