cowardice

cowardice
I
(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)
Shrinking from pain or danger
Nouns
1. cowardice, cowardliness, pusillanimity, poltroonery, baseness; dastardliness; abject fear, funk; Dutch courage; fear, white feather, faint heart, timidity. Informal, cold feet, yellow streak. See weakness.
2. coward, poltroon, dastard, sneak, craven, recreant, scaredy- or fraidy-cat; milksop, whiteliver, mama's boy, sissy, rabbit; runagate, runaway. Informal, weak sister, wimp, milquetoast, pansy, pantywaist. Slang, chicken-heart, chicken[-liver], chicken-shit, candy-ass, ring-tail, yellow-dog, lily- or yellow-liver.
Verbs — be cowardly, be a coward; cower, skulk, sneak; quail, flinch, shy, fight shy, slink, turn tail; lose one's nerve, run away (see avoidance); show the white feather; be psyched out. Informal, have cold feet. Slang, chicken out.
Adjectives — coward[ly], fearful, shy; poor-spirited, spiritless, soft, effeminate; weak-minded; weak-, faint-, chicken-, lily-, or pigeon-hearted, lily-or white-livered; pusillanimous, spineless, bloodless; unable to say "Boo" to a goose, afraid of one's shadow; dastard[ly]; base, craven, sneaking, recreant; unwarlike, unsoldierlike, unmanned, unmanly; frightened, afraid (see fear). Informal, yellow[-bellied]. Slang, chicken[-livered], chickenshit.
Phrases — a bully is always a coward.
Quotations — Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all (Shakespeare), Cowards die many times before their deaths (Shakespeare).
Antonyms, see courage.
II
(Roget's IV) n.
Syn. pusillanimity, cowardliness, cravenness, timorousness, timidity, faintheartedness, baseness, fear, abject fear, weakness, quailing, shrinking, cowering, fawning, groveling, sniveling, abjectness, bullying, recreancy, dastardy, dastardliness, want of courage, spinelessness, poltroonery, desertion, apprehension, dread, diffidence, apprehensiveness, fearfulness, suspicion, baby act*, white feather*, yellow streak*, yellowness*, lack of guts*, gutlessness*, funk*, cold feet*; see also fear 2 , shyness .
Ant. bravery, valor*, fearlessness.
III
(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.
timidity, fearfulness, faintheartedness, *wimpiness, *mousiness, pusillanimity, timorousness, *chicken-heartedness, *cold feet. ''To know what is right and not do it.''—Confucius
ANT.: bravery, fearlessness, *guts, *balls, daring
IV
(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun Ignoble lack of courage: chickenheartedness, cowardliness, cravenness, dastardliness, faintheartedness, funk, pusillanimity, unmanliness. Slang: gutlessness, yellowness, yellow streak. See FEAR.

English dictionary for students. 2013.

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  • Cowardice — Cow ard*ice ( [i^]s), n. [F. couardise, fr. couard. See {Coward}.] Want of courage to face danger; extreme timidity; pusillanimity; base fear of danger or hurt; lack of spirit. [1913 Webster] The cowardice of doing wrong. Milton. [1913 Webster]… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • cowardice — c.1300, from O.Fr. coardise (13c.), from coard, coart (see COWARD (Cf. coward)) + noun suffix ise. Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination. [Ernest Hemingway …   Etymology dictionary

  • cowardice — index fear, fright, panic Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • cowardice — [n] timidity cold feet*, faintheartedness, fear, fearfulness, funk, gutlessness, mousiness, pusillanimity, wimpiness; concept 27 …   New thesaurus

  • cowardice — [kou′ər dis΄] n. [ME & OFr couardise < couard: see COWARD] lack of courage; esp., shamefully excessive fear of danger, difficulty, or suffering …   English World dictionary

  • Cowardice — (Roget s Thesaurus) >Excess of fear. < N PARAG:Cowardice >N GRP: N 1 Sgm: N 1 cowardice cowardice pusillanimity Sgm: N 1 cowardliness cowardliness &c. >Adj. Sgm: N 1 timidity timidity effeminacy GRP: N 2 Sgm: N 2 …   English dictionary for students

  • cowardice — noun ADJECTIVE ▪ moral, political ▪ It is an act of moral cowardice for a society to neglect its poor. VERB + COWARDICE ▪ show ▪ accuse sb of …   Collocations dictionary

  • cowardice — n. 1) to demonstrate, show cowardice 2) abject, rank; moral cowardice 3) (misc.) a streak of cowardice * * * [ kaʊədɪs] moral cowardice rank showcowardice (misc.) a streak of cowardice abject to demonstrate …   Combinatory dictionary

  • Cowardice — Coward redirects here. For other meanings including as a surname, see Coward (disambiguation). Cowardice is the perceived failure to demonstrate sufficient mental robustness and courage in the face of a challenge. Under many military codes of… …   Wikipedia

  • cowardice — [[t]ka͟ʊə(r)dɪs[/t]] N UNCOUNT Cowardice is cowardly behaviour. He openly accused his opponents of cowardice. Ant: bravery, courage …   English dictionary

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