pusillanimously

There was no hostile approach but there were several invitations to dinner and one proposal of marriage (these I, pusillanimously, failed to pass on).

David Attenborough: 'I have been in a vehicle that was charged by a rhinoceros, and that was tiresome' Kate Kellaway 2010

And Jimmy Cagney – the most pusillanimously, quintessentially Irish-American actor of them all – was one-quarter Norwegian.

Irish America and the siege of Hollywood 2010

Whitson, recall, was the venal HRW expert said to be pusillanimously soft on Saudi Arabia.

That Anti-Semitic Human Rights Watch Is So Soft On The Saudis | ATTACKERMAN 2009

Holder has the power to overrule that office, but pusillanimously chose not to do it (as he would certainly have done if Minor were a fundraiser for the GOP).

The Outrageous Case of Paul Minor 2009

In sum, California's political leaders, who are pioneering the way to global re-cooling, are inexplicably and pusillanimously leading the way toward health care reform that will cover some more people and provide moderate cost reductions.

Jenny Price: The Health Care Crisis in California 2008

Somewhat pusillanimously, perhaps, I pursued my inquiries no further.

John Gabriel Borkman 2008

Somewhat pusillanimously, perhaps, I pursued my inquiries no further.

John Gabriel Borkman 2008

It doesn't stretch credulity to imagine that Letwin, Willetts, Hilton and Cameron all thought these speeches would send signals about the "modernisation" of the Conservative party, similarly to the "hug a hoodie" speech, but that Cameron and Hilton pusillanimously felt they had to distance themselves a little when they received a hostile reception.

Nadine Accuses Cameron's Advisers of Hanging Willetts & Letwin Out to Dry 2007

In some ways it doesn1t matter if the rules are arbitary but rules there must be and I would rather be honest about it that endure this pusillanimously timid attempt at virtual rebbellion.

The 'N' Word Won't Go Away 2007

But now that terras Astraea reliquit, kings and princes die of natural deaths; even war is pusillanimously carried on in this degenerate age; quarter is given; towns are taken, and the people spared: even in a storm, a woman can hardly hope for the benefit of a rape.

Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman 2005