Cowardly

adj, adv

adj, adv ·3 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Showing cowardice; lacking in courage; weakly fearful.

    "The cowardly rascals that ran from the battle."

Adjective
  1. 1
    lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted wordnet
Adverb
  1. 1
    In the manner of a coward, cowardlily. archaic

    "We will not ſteale vpon him cowardly, But giue him warning and more warriours."

Synonyms

All synonyms
caitiffchickenhearteddastardlyfunkypoltroonrecreant

Example

More examples

"There is a strong feeling in favour of cowardly and prudential proverbs."

Etymology

From Middle English *cowardly (adjective) and cowardly (adverb), equivalent to coward + -ly. Displaced native Old English earg.

Related phrases

cowardly lion

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.