craven

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“
With satisfaction then he watched his victim's agony; he watched it too with scorn and some loathing--for a craven was in his eyes an ugly sight, and Joseph in that moment was truly become as vile a coward as ever man beheld.

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Definitions (13)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Characterized by abject fear; cowardly.
  2. noun A coward.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • He was a craven, a weakling, and a fool, and what could be more appropriate than proving it? —  Mary Jo Putney - The Rake.htm
  • Noble or craven, they all drowned, or they were carried away like driftwood into the trackless ocean. —  Analog, July/August 2003
  • Maniac turned craven, the man actually looked rather pathetic oozing toward the woods and temporary freedom. —  Blood Lure
  • Though there was something a little craven, a touch humiliating about much of the build-up to this week's Prime Ministerial visit to Washington, it's reasonable to suppose that, in this instance at least, Brown may have been treated a little shabbily. —  Latest Articles
  • Are you going to lie down in the ditch like a craven, simply because you have failed to withstand the first assaults of the devil that is in you? —  Flamsted quarries
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English cravant, perhaps from Old French crevant, present participle of crever, to burst, from Latin crepāre, to break.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also cravent, cravant; from Middle English cravant, cravaunde (for orig. *cravante, in three syllables, the accented final -e being later lost, as in costive, q. v.), conquered, overcome, cowardly, from Old French cravanté, craventé, past participle of cravanter, craventer, crevanter, gravanter, carventer, break, break down, overthrow, overcome, conquer, modern French dial. (Norman) cravanter, gravater, accravater, crush with a load, craventer (Rouchi), overwhelm, craventer (Pi-card), tire out (craventé, tired out), = Spanish Portuguese quebrantar, break, pound, move to pity, weaken, from Middle Latin as if *crepantare, freq. (from crepan(t-)s, present participle) of Latin crepare (later F. crever = Provencal crebar = Spanish Portuguese quebrar = Italian crepare), break: see crepitate, decrepit, and cf. crevice, crevasse, from the same ult. source. The etymology has been much debated, being usually associated by etymologists, and to some extent in popular apprehension, with (1) crave, the form craven, Middle English cravant, cravaunde, being assumed to be the present participle of this verb (in Middle English properly cravam, cravend); or with (2) creant, recreant, Middle English creant, creaunt, recreant, recreaunt, used like craven in acknowledging defeat, properly present participle, yielding, submitting, literally believing, or accepting a new faith, ult. from Latin creden(t-)s, believing: see creant, recreant. The confusion with these words seems to have existed from the Middle English period, and has somewhat affected the meaning of craven.
  2. from craven, adjective
 

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/ˈkreɪvn/
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