Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state or quality of being pusillanimous; cowardice.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or condition of being pusillanimous; lack of that spirit which constitutes courage or fortitude; cowardliness; timidity.
  • noun Synonyms Poltroonery. See coward, n.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality of being pusillanimous; weakness of spirit; cowardliness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality or state of being pusillanimous; the vice of being timid and cowardly, and thus not living up to one's full potential; pusillanimousness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun contemptible fearfulness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the ecclesiastical Latin pusillanimis, from pusillus (puny) + animus (spirit) + -ous. A translation of the Greek ὀλιγόψυχος (oligopsykhos, "faint-hearted").

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Examples

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  • For this was done in the divine contempt of a general pusillanimity. (from Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart)

    December 31, 2007

  • "These provocations the Moriori faced as our Lord importuned, by 'turning the other cheek,' & the transgressors returned to New Zealand confirming the Moriori's apparent pusillanimity" (Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 013.3).

    January 22, 2010