dastardly
/ˈdɑːstədli/US/ˈdæstɚdli/
dastardly adjective: in the manner of a dastard; marked by cowardice; pusillanimous.
Adjective
dastardly (comparative dastardlier, superlative dastardliest)
- In the manner of a dastard; marked by cowardice; pusillanimous.
- I ask that the Congress declare, that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.1941 December 8, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 6:42 from the start, in Day of Infamy Speech, Washington, D.C.
- Synonyms:
- gutless, nithing, spineless, backboneless, base, soft, bitch-ass, boneless, caitiff, candy-assed
- Treacherous; given to backstabbing.
- Synonyms:
- Judaslike, ratlike, viperous, booky, disleal, disloyal, double-crossing, double-dealing, double-faced, double-hearted
Adverb
dastardly
- In a cowardly or treacherous fashion.
- Synonyms:
- Judasly, ratlike, traitorwise, disloyally, false, falsely, perfidiously, proditoriously, traitorly, traitorously
dastardly meaning in Malayalam
dastardly in Malayalam
- evil, wicked, heinous
- നിന്ദ്യമായ, നിന്ദ്യ, നിന്ദനീയ, ദുഷിച്ച, ദുഷ്ടമായ, തിന്മനിറഞ്ഞ
Synonyms of dastardly
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- chicken
- chicken-hearted
- chicken-livered
- chickenshit
- courageless
- cowardly
- cowardy
- cowhearted
- cowish
- craven
- cravenhearted
- cringey
- dastard
- dickless
- dough-faced
- fainthearted
- fearful
- fraidy
- gizzardless
- invertebrate
- hen-hearted
- kiasi
- lily-livered
- liver-faced
- low-hearted
- milk-livered
- mouse-hearted
- mousy
- nerveless
- nutless
Forms of dastardly
| comparative | dastardlier |
|---|---|
| superlative | dastardliest |
Origin of dastardly
From dastard + -ly.
Words formed from dastardly
Questions about dastardly
- What does dastardly mean?
- Dastardly means in the manner of a dastard; marked by cowardice; pusillanimous.
- What is dastardly in Malayalam?
- Dastardly in Malayalam is നിന്ദ്യമായ, നിന്ദ്യ, നിന്ദനീയ. See Dastardly meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is dastardly?
- Dastardly can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce dastardly?
- Dastardly is pronounced /ˈdɑːstədli/ (UK).
Words near dastardly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dastardly (page history and authors); dastardly (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset 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-dastardly.wav.
Cite this entry: “dastardly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dastardly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.