coward
nounadjectiveverbcommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈkaʊəd//
- United States//ˈkaʊɚd//
- //ˈkawə(ɾ)d//
A person who lacks courage.
noun
- 1
A person who lacks courage.
Near-synonyms: big baby, baby
Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […]
Etymology
From Middle English coward, from Old French coart, cuard ( > French couard), from coue (“tail”), coe + -ard (pejorative agent noun suffix); coue, coe is in turn from Latin cauda. The reference seems to be to an animal "turning tail", or having its tail between its legs, especially a dog. Compare the expression tail between one's legs. Displaced native Old English earg (surviving in northern dialect English argh). Unrelated to cower, which is of Germanic origin.
adjective
- 1
Cowardly.
It is a coward and servile humour, for a man to disguise and hide himselfe under a maske, and not dare to shew himselfe as he is.
c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 4, He rais’d the house with loud and coward cries.
Invading Fears repel my Coward Joy; And Ills foreseen the pleasant Bliss destroy.
- 2
Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo intimidate.
The first he coped with was their captain, whom / His sword sent headless to seek out a tomb. / This cowarded the valour of the rest, […]
Forms
- plural
- cowards
- comparative
- more coward
- superlative
- most coward
- past tense
- cowarded
- past participle
- cowarded
- present participle
- cowarding
- third person singular
- cowards