- cowardice
- I(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)Shrinking from pain or dangerNouns1. 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).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.''—ConfuciusANT.: bravery, fearlessness, *guts, *balls, daringIV(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.