Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A sneaking, malicious coward.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A dullard; a simpleton.
- n. A base coward; a poltroon; one who meanly shrinks from danger, or who performs malicious actions in a cowardly, sneaking manner.
- n. Synonyms Poltroon, Craven, etc. See coward.
- Characterized by base cowardice; meanly shrinking from danger, or from the consequences of malicious acts.
- To make dastard; intimidate; dispirit.
- To call one dastard or coward.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who meanly shrinks from danger; an arrant coward; a poltroon.
- adj. Meanly shrinking from danger; cowardly; dastardly.
- v. To dastardize.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. despicably cowardly
- n. a despicable coward
Etymologies
- Middle English, probably alteration of Old Norse dæstr, exhausted, from past participle of dæsa, to languish, decay.
Examples
““Let not thy mind be overmuch crossed by unwise men at thronged meetings of folk; for oft these speak worse than they wot of; lest thou be called a dastard, and art minded to think that thou art even as is said; slay such an one on another day, and so reward his ugly talk.”
“dastard," but he coolly waited until Haldane had finished, and then asked in his former tone:”
“Deeming the man who would not fight on provocation a dastard, when brought to the test it seemed wrong that he should fight.”
“I'm certain his dead ex-wife haunts him nightly for being such a dastard.”
Tom McIntyre Explains His Picks for our 2009 Hunting and Fishing Heroes and Villians Face-Off
“The coyote, in this case, is the world's greatest super-villain, a bald, barrel-chested, Eastern-European-accented dastard named Gru (voiced by Steve Carrell).”
The Huffington Post: Marshall Fine: Movie review: Despicable Me
“The coyote, in this case, is the world's greatest super-villain, a bald, barrel-chested, Eastern-European-accented dastard named Gru voiced by Steve Carrell.”
The Huffington Post: Marshall Fine: Movie review: Despicable Me
“I can't think of any other reason they might rate this disturbing romp through the Joker's dastard deeds as PG-13.”
“Zardari, the dastard prince of Pakistan and widower to the assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is certainly no saint.”
“In others, one is dumped square into the racket that is the dastard American health insurance market.”
“No one who ever watched a match scratched their head and wondered who was the dastard and who was the darling.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dastard’.
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 194 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( etymology )
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 837 more...
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'ard enough
The derogatory suffix -ard, now used in just a few words though previously very productive.
bastard, coward, shittard, squittard, cackard, snivelard, dullard, sluggard, niggard, dizzard, blaggard, drunkard and 21 more...
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tardiness
mustard, retard, bastard, leotard, custard, unitard, petard, dastard, bustard, dotard, tardy, tardis and 9 more...
bilby "... only that name remains;
The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest,
And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be
Whoop'd out of Rome."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'. Aug 28, 2009
qroqqa Exact words were never spoken, but Miss Christie had come to live in the belief that Miss Nicholl and Mrs. Hazelton had grown up together, would in fact have made a joint debut had it not been for the death of Miss Nicholl's father, too innocent a soul to mistrust the dastard who managed his financial affairs; so Miss Nicholl had had to go to work and, naturally, her path had split wide from Mrs. Hazelton's.
—Dorothy Parker, 'The Bolt behind the Blue' Nov 12, 2008
bilby Drat Saddam, a mad dastard! Oct 18, 2008
milosrdenstvi Which explains someone being dastardly. Aug 22, 2008
brtom "My client, an innately bashful man, would be the last man in the world to do anything ungentlemanly which injured modesty could object to or cast a stone at a girl who took the wrong turning when some dastard, responsible for her condition, had worked his own sweet will on her."
Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Feb 5, 2007