pusillanimous
/ˌpjuːsɪlˈænɪməs/
pusillanimous adjective: showing ignoble cowardice, or contemptible timidity.
Adjective
pusillanimous (comparative more pusillanimous, superlative most pusillanimous)
- Showing ignoble cowardice, or contemptible timidity.
- The soldier deserted his troop in a pusillanimous manner.
- Therefore, the wise thing is for us diligently to train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie with a good object, and not an evil one; to lie for others' advantage, and not our own; to lie healingly, charitably, humanely, not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously; to lie gracefully and...1882, Mark Twain, On the Decay of the Art of Lying
pusillanimous meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
pusillanimous in Urdu
- بزدل, کمینہ
pusillanimous in Bengali
- ভীতু, সাহসহীন
pusillanimous in Malayalam
- cowardly, timid, timorous
- ചങ്കൂറ്റമില്ലാത്ത, കാതരമായ, നിഷ്പ്രതിഭാന, ധെെര്യമില്ലാത്ത, ക്ലീബമായ, നിശ്ചയദാർഢ്യമില്ലാത്ത
pusillanimous in Kannada
- ಹೇಡಿ, ಪುಕ್ಕಲು, ಪುಕ್ಕಲಿನ, ಅಳ್ಳೆದೆಯ, ಅಂಜು ಬುರುಕ, ಹೇಡಿತನದ
Examples of pusillanimous in a sentence
- The best, and that goes for that pusillanimous spotted caitiff of a president (referring to Thomas Jefferson) we got.1973, Gore Vidal, Burr, chapter 36
- Octavian, by contrast, was pusillanimous in battle ... but proved himself extremely adept in the political arena2007, David Potter, chapter 1, in The Emperors of Rome, page 36:
Forms of pusillanimous
| comparative | more pusillanimous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most pusillanimous |
Origin of pusillanimous
Derived from Latin pusillanimis (“faint-hearted, timid”) + -ous.
Words that rhyme with pusillanimous
Questions about pusillanimous
- What does pusillanimous mean?
- Pusillanimous means showing ignoble cowardice, or contemptible timidity.
- What is pusillanimous in Urdu?
- Pusillanimous in Urdu is بزدل, کمینہ. See Pusillanimous meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use pusillanimous in a sentence?
- The best, and that goes for that pusillanimous spotted caitiff of a president (referring to Thomas Jefferson) we got.
- What part of speech is pusillanimous?
- Pusillanimous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce pusillanimous?
- Pusillanimous is pronounced /ˌpjuːsɪlˈænɪməs/.
Words near pusillanimous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pusillanimous (page history and authors); pusillanimous (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pusillanimous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pusillanimous (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); pusillanimous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: en-us-pusillanimous.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pusillanimous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pusillanimous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.