Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A base coward: "Every moment of the fashion industry's misery is richly deserved by the designers . . . and magazine poltroons who perpetuate this absurd creation” ( Nina Totenberg).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A lazy, idle fellow; a sluggard; a fellow without spirit or courage; a dastard; a coward.
- n. Synonyms Craven, Dastard, etc. See coward.
- Base; cowardly; contemptible.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An arrant coward; a dastard; a craven; a mean-spirited wretch.
- adj. Base; vile; contemptible; cowardly.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. characterized by complete cowardliness
- n. an abject coward
Etymologies
- From Middle French poltron, from Italian poltrone (Wiktionary)
- French poltron, from Old Italian poltrone, coward, idler, perhaps augmentative of poltro, unbroken colt (from Vulgar Latin *pulliter, from Latin pullus, young animal; see pau-1 in Indo-European roots) or from poltro, bed, lazy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Being dismissed as a liar and poltroon translates to “respect”?”
Think Progress » Pentagon Shooter Was Right-Wing, Anti-Government Terrorist
“Abraham Lincoln was called a poltroon, a hypocrite, because he was deliberate, painstaking and cautious about issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.”
“Tyrrell is best known now as an insane Clinton-basher, but he became sort of famous in the '70s by fancying himself the reincarnation of H.L. Mencken, writing a lot of Carter-bashing columns where he called everyone a "poltroon" or "the honorable" something.”
“I will call the poltroon in the White House scum, however.)”
“It doesn't matter what kind of poltroon parks his or her butt in the Oval Office, or how they get in there; they will be presented to the people as a figure of moral authority and gravitas -- and be accepted as such by large swathes of the public.”
“Plague on it!" cried Telemachus, laying the bow aside with an air of vexation, "must I be called a poltroon all my life, or is it that I have not yet attained the full measure of my strength?”
““The only way someone will ever get through to a “suck on this, filthy shvatz goyim!” poltroon like Tom Friedman is if they do a Danny Pearl on him.””
Matthew Yglesias » Peres: Gaza Operation is Collective Punishment, and I Love It
“The only way someone will ever get through to a “suck on this, filthy shvatz goyim!” poltroon like Tom Friedman is if they do a Danny Pearl on him.”
Matthew Yglesias » Peres: Gaza Operation is Collective Punishment, and I Love It
“You are scarcely better than your chancellor, who is a thief and a poltroon!”
The Guardian: David Cameron quotes Benny Hill song, but it's not the PM's greatest hit
“In the end, though, we can hardly blame the old poltroon for trying it on via his lawyer over the Culshaw fiasco.”
The Guardian: Eamonn Holmes gets the BBC jokes eating away at him banned
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘poltroon’.
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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 212 more...
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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Not edible
Things that sound edible but are not (usually). See Liberty's To Eat, or Not to Eat? for more diet food.
cinnabar, dulcimer, belfries, potto, maltha, grapple, loam, rake, tort, pomade, buffalo chip, wedgie and 172 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, slubberdegullion, bastard, hooligan, boor, churl, thug, cad, ne'er-do-well, miscreant, minx and 85 more...
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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catinthehat345's List
compere, reticle, colophon, miasma, eldritch, raconteur, plectrum, poltroon, vestibular, pastiche, cravat, acumen and 179 more...
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~~Olde-Fashioned Insults~~
ragamuffin, muttonchops, tatterdemalion, nincompoop, whippersnapper, bootlicker, backscratcher, loggerhead, weisenheimer, hornswoggler, thimblerigger, quacksalver and 111 more...
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The Whiteness of the Whale
Words in Melville's "Moby Dick"
grapnels, spile, pea coffee, farrago, grego, bosky, bombazine, brevet, cenotaph, cupidity, kelson, obliquity and 164 more...
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New words
Words that are new to me.
autostrada, gimlet, clyster, gravida, skelped, nacreous, susurrus, intransigent, puissant, turbid, plangent, fungible and 99 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Jane Eyre
abigail, sanguine, chancel, bourne, peremptorily, parley, unwonted, fagging, convolvuli, tarry, insuperable, execrations and 190 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for poltroon.
jodi Dickens, via http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2011/07/doing-dickens.html Jul 16, 2011
avivamagnolia
Base; vile; contemptible; cowardly. French poltron, from Italian poltrone: an idle fellow, sluggard, coward. poltro: idle, lazy. An arrant coward; a dastard; a craven; a mean-spirited wretch. Jan 18, 2009
yarb "Man, man! did I not know thee brave as fearless fire (and as mechanical) I could swear thou wert a poltroon."
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 133 Jul 30, 2008