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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
coward
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He called me a coward, because I wouldn't fight.
▪ Perhaps I should have turned back but I didn't want to be known as a quitter and a coward.
▪ She knew she was an awful coward about going to the dentist.
▪ They're cowards - they don't have the guts to confront me personally.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Alan was a kind of unflinching coward who lived into an era of absolute cowards.
▪ Any coward with a grudge could do this to us anywhere, any time.
▪ I may even go so far as to say that I prefer cowards to heroes, given a choice.
▪ Many civil servants are moral cowards.
▪ The cabdrivers had run away, the cowards.
▪ Why would anyone want to go and see a man who was a coward?
▪ You're a damned little coward, Hilary, and I don't know why I bother with you!
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Coward

Coward \Cow"ard\, n. A person who lacks courage; a timid or pusillanimous person; a poltroon.

A fool is nauseous, but a coward worse.
--Dryden.

Syn: Craven; poltroon; dastard.

Coward

Coward \Cow"ard\ (kou"?rd), a. [OF. couard, coard, coart, n. and adj., F. couard, fr. OF. coe, coue, tail, F. queue (fr. L. coda, a form of cauda tail) + -ard; orig., short-tailed, as an epithet of the hare, or perh., turning tail, like a scared dog. Cf. Cue, Queue, Caudal.]

  1. (Her.) Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs; -- said of a lion.

  2. Destitute of courage; timid; cowardly.

    Fie, coward woman, and soft-hearted wretch.
    --Shak.

  3. Belonging to a coward; proceeding from, or expressive of, base fear or timidity.

    He raised the house with loud and coward cries.
    --Shak.

    Invading fears repel my coward joy.
    --Proir.

Coward

Coward \Cow"ard\, v. t. To make timorous; to frighten. [Obs.]

That which cowardeth a man's heart.
--Foxe.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
coward

mid-13c., from Old French coart "coward" (no longer the usual word in French, which has now in this sense poltron, from Italian, and lâche), from coe "tail," from Latin coda, popular dialect variant of cauda "tail," which is of uncertain origin + -ard, an agent noun suffix denoting one that carries on some action or possesses some quality, with derogatory connotation (see -ard).\n

\nThe word probably reflects an animal metaphoric sense still found in expressions like turning tail and tail between legs. Coart was the name of the hare in Old French versions of "Reynard the Fox." Italian codardo, Spanish cobarde are from French.\n\nThe identification of coward & bully has gone so far in the popular consciousness that persons & acts in which no trace of fear is to be found are often called coward(ly) merely because advantage has been taken of superior strength or position ....

[Fowler]

\nAs a surname (attested from 1255) it represents Old English cuhyrde "cow-herd." Farmer has coward's castle "a pulpit," "Because a clergyman may deliver himself therefrom without fear of contradiction or argument."
Wiktionary
coward

a. 1 cowardly. 2 (context heraldry of a lion English) Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs. n. A person who lacks courage.

WordNet
coward
  1. n. a person who shows fear or timidity

  2. English dramatist and actor and composer noted for his witty and sophisticated comedies (1899-1973) [syn: Noel Coward, Sir Noel Pierce Coward]

Gazetteer
Coward, SC -- U.S. town in South Carolina
Population (2000): 650
Housing Units (2000): 263
Land area (2000): 3.423126 sq. miles (8.865856 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 0.006545 sq. miles (0.016951 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 3.429671 sq. miles (8.882807 sq. km)
FIPS code: 17215
Located within: South Carolina (SC), FIPS 45
Location: 33.975560 N, 79.747097 W
ZIP Codes (1990): 29530
Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
Headwords:
Coward, SC
Coward
Wikipedia
Coward (disambiguation)

A coward is someone who possesses the trait of cowardice.

Coward may also refer to:

Coward (album)

Coward is the second studio album by American post-hardcore band Made Out of Babies. It was the second and last album by the band to be released through Neurot records on September 5, 2006. The album was recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago with mixing by John Golden.

Coward (Nels Cline album)

Coward is a solo album by American guitarist Nels Cline which was released in October 2009 on the Cryptogramophone label.

Coward (Haste the Day album)

Coward is the sixth studio album from Haste the Day. Solid State Records released the album on May 18, 2015. The album was released following the band's successful funding campaign via the crowdfunding website IndieGoGo, to which fans contributed more than twice the band's original goal. Coward is unique in that it features contributions from every member throughout the band's career, and is the first studio album to feature original vocalist Jimmy Ryan since the band's 2005 release When Everything Falls.

Coward (surname)

Coward is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

  • Charles Coward, known as the "Count of Auschwitz", English soldier captured during World War II who rescued Jews from Auschwitz
  • Chris Coward, English football player
  • Herbert 'Cowboy' Coward, actor who starred in the seminal 1972 thriller Deliverance
  • John Coward, British gold medal winner at the 1936 Winter Olympics
  • John Coward, the first officer of British Airways Flight 38 which crashed at Heathrow on 17 January 2008
  • Noël Coward (1899–1973), English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music
  • Dame Pamela Coward, Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 for having transformed her school, Middleton Technology School, in Middleton, near Rochdale
  • Thomas Coward, English ornithologist and amateur astronomer and author
  • William Coward, English physician, controversial writer, and poet

Gaz Coward, English film director, produce and actor

Usage examples of "coward".

For a while there was some robust debating, the Castellans being pilloried as dictatorial and even war-mongering, while the Ploughers were labelled as naive appeasers and cowards and quite indifferent to the fate of the people who worked in the forestry trade.

He listened attentively to the count, who told us we were going to our destruction, and like the coward that he was, he began to plan how to escape from the dangerous journey.

I gave him a blow with my cane by way of answer, and the coward, instead of drawing his sword, began to cry out that I wished to draw him into a fight.

In the meanwhile I bore as well as I could the poor figure he must be cutting before the officers at table, who, after hearing the insolence of this young blockhead, might take me for a coward.

Hearing these words, he came up to me, sneering, called me a coward, and gave me a smack on the face which almost stunned me.

I felt that my position was a difficult one, and that unless I was careful I might ruin all, for I had to do with a coward quite capable of saying that he was not going to risk his life, and by myself I could not hope to succeed.

I would be a fool, and a coward, to abandon Darre and leave a Wendish foreigner, however loyal, in charge.

These arguments did not satisfy him, and in his rage he dared to tell me that I was a scurvy coward not to know that it was my duty to defend a friend to the death.

Daniel was a coward before one of the simplest, most inevitable happenings of earthly life.

In an age which venerated the Miles Gloriosus and thought of the Exploring Officer and his even more shadowy kindred as jackals and cowards, the news that the King himself employed such creatures might be enough to trigger a second English Civil War.

It takes a coward like me, scared from an encounter with Dieter Gluck, to feel fright.

It seemed to me that if I had failed to come, I should have given him the right to call me a coward.

I ordered the men to go back to the island, but they answered that I had not to deal with a couple of cowards, and that I had no occasion to be afraid.

I believe I would have helped you to pierce him to the heart if the coward had not run away.

Medini, who had no arms, and was only in his dressing-gown, proceeded to distribute kicks, cuffs, and blows amongst the four cowards, who had their swords at their sides, whilst I held the door to prevent the Irishman going out and calling for assistance.