coward
/ˈkaʊəd
/noun
A person who is contemptibly lacking in the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things: they had run away—the cowards!...
- ‘Our power is wielded by weaklings and cowards, and our honour is false in all its points’.
- By demonstrating their courage, they have shown you for the cowards you are.
- Due to my not being enraged or scared of these cowards, there was no fear, and I believe they sensed that.
Synonyms
weakling, milksop, namby-pamby, mouse
informal chicken, scaredy-cat, fraidy-cat, yellow-belly, sissy, big baby
British informal big girl's blouse
North American informal candy-ass, pussy
Australian/New Zealand informal dingo, sook
informal, dated funk
archaic poltroon, craven, recreant, caitiff
adjective
1 literary Excessively afraid of danger or pain.Aidan had lost count how many times he'd cried himself to sleep in order to escape the pain that he was too coward to relieve himself of....
- We were always discussing that he is a coward man, that he will not fight for his life, that he will not fight for what he believes in.
- She squared her jaw and turned, feeling foolishly coward.
2 Heraldry (Of an animal) depicted with the tail between the hind legs.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French couard, based on Latin cauda 'tail', possibly with reference to a frightened animal with its tail between its legs, reflected in sense 2 of the adjective (early 16th century).
The Latin word cauda ‘tail’ is the source of coward. This may be from the idea of a frightened animal drawing its tail between its legs or ‘turning tail’ in flight. In heraldry lion coward is the term for a lion depicted with its tail drawn between its hind legs. Despite the similarity in spelling and meaning, the verb cower (Middle English) has a completely different origin, coming from German kūren ‘lie in wait’.