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  1. poltroonery love

Definitions

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The character or nature of a poltroon; cowardice; baseness of mind; want of spirit.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Cowardice; want of spirit; pusillanimity.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. Cowardice; want of spirit; pusillanimity.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. abject pusillanimity

Etymologies

  1. poltroon +‎ -ery (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “Because the driver has (as is his wont) omitted such petit-bourgeois poltroonery as insurance, driving licence and vehicle registration, it will not matter if he is on every visit tracked from low Earth orbit by some huge American spy satellite.”

    Blatancy Award

  • “Abdication of responsibility mothered by political poltroonery, thy name is Congress.”

    The Huffington Post: Bruce Fein: Congressional Abdication to the Fed

  • “I'm used to it; not the least irony of my undetected poltroonery is the awe my fearsome reputation inspires.”

    Fictionaut: Watershed

  • “I couldn't believe such poltroonery, myself, and said so, loudly.”

    Fictionaut: The Sky Writer

  • “We dare not stigmatize Argyle with poltroonery; for, though his life was marked by no action of bravery, yet he behaved with so much composure and dignity in the final and closing scene, that his conduct upon the present and similar occasions, should be rather imputed to indecision than to want of courage.”

    A Legend of Montrose

  • “I descended the glen more slowly than they, often looking back, and not ill pleased with the poltroonery of my companions, which left me to my own perplexed and moody humour, and induced them to hasten into the broader dale.”

    The Monastery

  • “Moreover, he had no shame in his poltroonery like the recreant”

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night

  • “We as a species are extraordinary, and capable of great heroism and compassion as well as poltroonery and spite.”

    Perspective on Mars

  • “In witness of their poltroonery, we set upon the knaves with much promptitude, winning the battlement with but minor effusion of blood, etc. etc.”

    Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » Ulysses S. Grant invents American prose

  • “Then I thought of poor Firm, and of good Uncle Sam, and how they scorned poltroonery; and, better still, I thought of that great Power which always had protected me: in a word, I resolved to risk it.”

    Erema

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Lists

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Comments

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  • jaime_d from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution Mar 6, 2011

  • hernesheir Cf. French (la) poltronnerie - "cowardice" Jul 27, 2009

  • wittman Thomas Carlyle, 1843, "Past and Present": "A conscious abhorrence and intolerance of Folly, of Baseness, Stupidity, Poltroonery and all that brood of things, dwells deep in some men..." Jul 27, 2009

  • optimusprime H.L. Mencken, 1922, "The Libertine": "Even more effective than the fiscal barrier (between man and philandering) is the barrier of poltroonery. The one character that distinguishes man from the other higher vertebrata is his excessive timorousness, his easy yielding, his incapacity for adventures without a crowd behind him." May 12, 2008

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‘poltroonery’ has been looked up 1253 times, loved by 2 people, added to 9 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 16.