Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Lacking courage; cowardly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Lacking strength and firmness of mind; wanting in courage and fortitude; being of weak courage; faint-hearted; mean-spirited; cowardly.
- Proceeding from lack of courage; indicating timidity.
- Synonyms Poltroon, Dastard, etc. See coward.
- 1 and
- Weak, feeble, timorous, spiritless, effeminate, dastardly.
Wiktionary
- adj. Showing ignoble cowardice, or contemptible timidity
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Destitute of a manly or courageous strength and firmness of mind; of weak spirit; mean-spirited; spiritless; cowardly; -- said of persons, .
- adj. Evincing, or characterized by, weakness of mind, and want of courage; feeble.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lacking in courage and manly strength and resolution; contemptibly fearful
Etymologies
- Middle English pusillanimus, from Late Latin pusillanimis : Latin pusillus, weak, diminutive of pullus, young of an animal; see pau-1 in Indo-European roots + animus, reason, mind; see anə- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Meral Ece a Liberal Coucillor is worrying in pusillanimous Liberal way about gun crime in the Gazette.”
“... is worrying in pusillanimous Liberal way about gun crime in the Gazette ...”
“We have been laborious, contented, and prosperous; and if we have been reabsorbed by the mother country, in accordance with what I cannot but call the pusillanimous conduct of certain of our elder”
“Moderator, I withdraw the 'pusillanimous' barb unreservedly.”
“Wow, I haven't heard the word "pusillanimous" since the last time I watched "The Wizard of Oz"!”
“At least real conservatives stick by their guns, but you're the worst kind of pusillanimous, wobbling imbeciles.”
“PS I was in a play once where I used the word "pusillanimous".”
“It must have been great to say the 'pusillanimous' line.”
“The United Democratic Movement on Wednesday criticised what it called SA Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni's "pusillanimous" response to the country's economic challenges, and not lowering the interest rate.”
“If those are not freemen who do what they please, and are for the most part approved in what they do, who puff at all their enemies, and scorn such as pusillanimous slaves who go not forth unto the same compass of excess with them, who shall be esteemed free?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pusillanimous’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT Catchall
brainfood for my hungry, eager pupils
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 136 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 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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Talking About Words
The favorite words of Talking Tyrants
dolorous, parsimonious, apotemnophilia, odalisque, tuberoinfundibular, morass, ostentatious, sybaritic, vermilion, onomatopoeia, eschatology, teleology and 49 more...
dbekeny WIZARD
Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a
very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous
creature that crawls on the earth -- or
slinks through slimy seas has a brain!
Jun 2, 2010
jodi "It is China that has come out of the affair looking pusillanimous. Pressed by Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, to chastise North Korea, in public Chinese officials avoided even mentioning the attack on the Cheonan and merely called for restraint on all sides (see article). They presumably fear jeopardising the stability of their renegade ally. But that is not just feeble, it is silly. Letting Mr Kim get away with this outrage will only tempt him to try more." http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16216482 May 29, 2010
inkstains Lily-livered.
:) Jun 27, 2009
qroqqa JIMMY: I looked up that word the other day. It's one of those words I've never been quite sure of, but always thought I knew.
CLIFF: What was that?
JIMMY: I told you—pusillanimous. Do you know what it means?
Cliff shakes his head.
Neither did I really. All this time, I have been married to this woman, this monument to non-attachment, and suddenly I discover that there is actually a word that sums her up. Not just an adjective in the English language to describe her with—it's her name! Pusillanimous! It sounds like some fleshy Roman matron, doesn't it? The Lady Pusillanimous seen here with her husband Sextus, on their way to the Games.
—John Osborne, Look Back in Anger Jun 10, 2009
chained_bear Hmmm... The Wiz.... *thinks* Oct 16, 2008
reesetee I always think of the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz (the movie). The Wiz uses this word on him. Oct 16, 2008
dontcry I believe it is. A small-ish one with little cat feet and a large feather on the top of his head. Oct 16, 2008
chained_bear Isn't that a dinosaur of some kind? Oct 16, 2008
dontcry Makes me think of pussinbootsimous Oct 16, 2008
milosrdenstvi Shrivel and die, you pusillanimous wimp!
-- SMAC insult given to head of U.N. Aug 20, 2008
renumeratedfrog I guess this is an onomatopoeia because it sounds similar to what it means. Aug 20, 2008
tonya "Don't be such a pussy cat!" is how I remember this :). Aug 8, 2008
jeffazi Lacking in courage and manly strength and resolution; contemptibly fearful. Nov 13, 2007