Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Cowardly and malicious; base.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Characterized by gross cowardice; meanly timid; base; sneaking.
Wiktionary
- adj. in the manner of a dastard; marked by cowardice; pusillanimous
- adj. treacherous; given to backstabbing
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Meanly timid; cowardly; base.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. despicably cowardly
Etymologies
- dastard + -ly (Wiktionary)
Examples
“British Ambassador to Afghanistan William Patey said that what he called a "dastardly, cowardly attack designed to attack British interests" had instead caused the deaths of many Afghans”
Voice of America: Militants Storm British Council in Afghan Capital in Deadly Attack
“Inkatha denied involvement in what it called a dastardly attack.”
“Or am I the Chief Constable in dastardly disguise ….? on December 28, 2006 at 9: 21 am | Reply M&MBM”
“In a nationwide address, President Jonathan said there will be a judicial commission of inquiry into what he calls "dastardly acts of violence" that recall the days before Nigeria's Biafran civil war, in the late 1960's.”
Voice of America: Nigerian President Calls Out More Security Forces
“Astonished at his own feelings, and indignant at what he termed a dastardly weakness, he found it necessary to argue with himself, and his rapid thoughts said, “Do I not feel the necessity of this act!”
“Lord Methuen described as dastardly the firing by the enemy on ambulance waggons, the shooting of a British officer by a wounded Boer, and the use of Dum-Dum bullets; but he refused to believe that these acts were characteristic of the enemy; he would give them credit until he was convinced to the contrary that they wished to fight fair and square.”
“But do not accelerate it; thou wilt not be called dastardly if thou honorably preservest thy life -- and Erinnys, [153] with her murky tempest, enters not the dwelling where the gods receive a sacrifice from the hands [of the inmates].”
“I wouldn't call her dastardly, but there's a good bit of cruelty to the narrator of”
“According to these two babes (well, maybe one babe and Greta), it was some kind of dastardly plot.”
“In turn, liberal columnist Dahlia Lithwith, writing for the online magazine Slate, said Breyer's musings did not "amount to some kind of dastardly liberal anti-free-speech conspiracy.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dastardly’.
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macabre
words associated with the macabre & horror.
( open list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.co...ghastly, grisly, culeus, silly, gruesome, horrid, morbid, angelic, shocking, hideous, ghoulish, frightful and 136 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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select words
luminous, radiant, malicious, zeal, ojalá, voluptuary, rubbish, purlicue, consarnit, upstart, precis, robinsonade and 66 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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fairytale words
any words which evoke a sense of childplay and fairytales!
unicorn, penchant, whimsy, folly, dastardly, pixie, sylph, kelpie, petticoat, elfin, fey, dandelion
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WORDARAMA-RAMA
Practical wondrous wordliness. Words to embiggen my diction and add flavor to life and discourse. Words to break the monotony of the day.
dastardly, scrumptious, ostensibly, laconic, petulant, capricious, schadenfreude, euphemism, salient, ignoble, castigate, abscond and 5 more...
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Kalli's Words
redundant, munchkin, escapade, natch, boom, fap, geek, nocturnal, pedantic, tactile, conversant, oxymoron and 188 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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LWC's Words
spork, heteroskedasticity, kurtosis, eigenspace, smithian, skewness, montanan, whoremonger, mellifluous, fishwife, papist, romanist and 142 more...
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apjoseph's words
insurmountable, ubiquitous, unequivocal, incumbent, asinine, amenable, sycophants, precarious, malevolent, gregarious, raison detra, nefarious and 200 more...
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Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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summerwing's Words
proctosigmoidoscopy, horrendous, cichlid, implode, nostalgic, firmament, elucidate, quintet, rhombus, mack, pithy, rambunctious and 304 more...
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lavendargrrl's Words
surfeit, radiant, sussuration, sustenance, authenticity, aching, solitude, solicitous, limerance, compersion, philanthropy, mystery and 108 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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vorpal's Words
parabiosis, penumbra, defenestrate, portmanteau, sturm und drang, perspicacious, quixotic, copacetic, obfuscate, inveigle, shadenfreude, cloister and 349 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dastardly.

yarb Great citation; thanks DanieleO. Dec 24, 2008
danieleo Beautifully used by Franklin Delano Roosvelt, in the 7th of December 1941 declaration of war of the USA against the Emire of Japan:
"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire."
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm
Dec 24, 2008