cowardly
/ˈkaʊədli/
cowardly adjective: showing cowardice; lacking in courage; weakly fearful.
Adjective
cowardly (comparative cowardlier or more cowardly, superlative cowardliest or most cowardly)
- Showing cowardice; lacking in courage; weakly fearful.
- The cowardly rascals that ran from the battle.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- The cowardly rashness of those who dare not look danger in the face.1780, Edmund Burke, speech at The Guildhall, in Bristol
- Synonyms:
- craven, backboneless, base, soft, bitch-ass, boneless, caitiff, candy-assed, chicken, chicken-hearted
Adverb
cowardly (comparative more cowardly, superlative most cowardly)
- In the manner of a coward, cowardlily.
- We will not ſteale vpon him cowardly,
But giue him warning and more warriours.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC... - I love to follow them, but not so cowardly, as my life remaine thereby in subjection.1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 48
- We will not ſteale vpon him cowardly,
cowardly meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
cowardly in Hindi
- showing cowardice
- कायर kāyar, डरपोक ḍarpok
- in the manner of a coward
- कायरतापूर्ण kāyartāpūrṇ
cowardly in Tamil
- கோழைத்தனமான, கோழைத்தனமானது
cowardly in Marathi
- cowardly, fearful, craven, timid
- भित्रे bhitre
- cowardly, fearful, timid, craven
- भित्रा bhitrā
cowardly in Urdu
- cowardly, unmanly
- نامرد nāmard
More languagesFewer languages
- cowardly in Bengali
- মেকুরা mekura
- cowardly in Telugu
- పిరికి piriki
- cowardly in Malayalam
- ഭയശീലനായ, ധൈര്യമില്ലാത്ത, ഭയപ്പെടുന്ന, ഭീരുവായ
- cowardly in Punjabi
- ਕਾਇਰ kāira, کائر kā'ir
- cowardly in Gujarati
- કાયર kāyar, બીકણ bīkaṇ
- cowardly in Odia
- କାପୁରୁଷତାପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ, କାପୁରୁଷୋଚିତ
- cowardly in Sanskrit
- कातर kātara, कापुरुष kāpuruṣa, भीरु bhīru
- cowardly in Nepali
- कायरतापूर्ण
- cowardly in Arabic
- جَبَان jabān
- cowardly in Persian
- ترسو tarsu
- cowardly in Thai
- ขี้ขลาด kîi-klàat, ขลาด klàat, ป๊อด bpɔ́ɔt, ปอดแหก
Examples of cowardly in a sentence
- The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts.
- But the brutes are more chivalrous than man—they do not stoop to cowardly intrigue.”
- Why, thou cowardly knave, no stronger than a duck, Darest thou try masteries with me a-pluck.
Synonyms of cowardly
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- chicken-livered
- chickenshit
- courageless
- cowardy
- cowhearted
- cowish
- cravenhearted
- cringey
- dastard
- dastardly
- dickless
- dough-faced
- fainthearted
- fearful
- fraidy
- gizzardless
- invertebrate
- gutless
- hen-hearted
- kiasi
- lily-livered
- liver-faced
- low-hearted
- milk-livered
- mouse-hearted
- mousy
- nerveless
- nutless
- pigeon-livered
- poltroonish
Antonyms
Forms of cowardly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | cowardlier |
| comparative | more cowardly |
| superlative | cowardliest |
| superlative | most cowardly |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more cowardly |
| superlative | most cowardly |
Origin of cowardly
From Middle English *cowardly (adjective) and cowardly (adverb), equivalent to coward + -ly. Displaced native Old English earg.
Words formed from cowardly
Phrases with cowardly
Questions about cowardly
- What does cowardly mean?
- Cowardly means showing cowardice; lacking in courage; weakly fearful.
- What is cowardly in Hindi?
- Cowardly in Hindi is कायर (kāyar), डरपोक (ḍarpok), कायरतापूर्ण (kāyartāpūrṇ). See Cowardly meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is cowardly?
- Cowardly can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce cowardly?
- Cowardly is pronounced /ˈkaʊədli/ (UK).
Words near cowardly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cowardly (page history and authors); cowardly (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); भित्रा (Marathi) (page history and authors); نامرد (Urdu) (page history and authors); মেকুরা (Bengali) (page history and authors); పిరికి (Telugu) (page history and authors); cowardly (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cowardly (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowardly (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cowardly.wav.
Cite this entry: “cowardly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cowardly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.