adj, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   simple past and past participle of cow form-of, participle, past

Adjective

1. 1
   Frightened into submission.

   "For quotations using this term, see Citations:cowed."

Synonyms

All synonyms

intimidatedafraidaghastappalledashenastounded

Example

More examples

"He was cowed by her intelligence."

Etymology

* Probable origins are Scandinavian, cf. Danish kue, to subdue.

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