cowardnoun [ C ]
uk/ˈkaʊ.əd/us/ˈkaʊ.ɚd/disapprovingB2 a person who is not brave and is too eager to avoid danger, difficulty, or pain:
They branded her a coward for informing on her colleagues during the interrogation.
More examples
- He despised himself for being such a coward.
- He is a coward and a bully.
- She considered him a coward for failing to join up in the war.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Heroes and cowards
- a big/great girl's blouse idiom
- adventurer
- baby
- candy-ass
- chicken
- daredevil
- fainthearted
- fallen idol
- folk hero
- girl
- heroine
- idol
- knight errant
- marshmallow
- pantheon
- sissy
- sook
- superhero
- wimp
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cowardly
adjective uk/ˈkaʊ.əd.li/us/ˈkaʊ.ɚd.li/
B2
This was a particularly brutal and cowardly attack.
They are guilty of a cowardly failure to address the problem.
cowardice
noun [ U ] uk/ˈkaʊ.ə.dɪs/us/ˈkaʊ.ɚ.dɪs/
You can accuse me of cowardice, but I still wouldn't fight in a war.