coward
nounEtymology
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.
Definitions
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: […]
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.
Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.
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To 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, […]
A surname originating as an occupation.
The neighborhood
- antonymhero
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at coward. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at coward. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
9 hops · closes at coward
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA