as in craven
a person who shows a shameful lack of courage in the face of danger
the soldiers who ran as soon as the first shots were fired were branded as cowards
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in cowardly
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of coward
Jack Fink, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2026
John Cornyn is a coward who has refused to support abolishing the filibuster to pass this bill.
—Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5 Mar. 2026
James Arthur, The New York Review of Books, 5 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for coward
Noun
John Cornyn is a coward who has refused to support abolishing the filibuster to pass this bill.
—Jack Fink, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2026
John Cornyn is a coward who has refused to support abolishing the filibuster to pass this bill.
—Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 5 Mar. 2026
Adjective
Whoomp, whoomp bumped the coward heart.
—James Arthur, The New York Review of Books, 5 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for coward
Recent Examples of Synonyms for coward
Noun
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As cold fronts continue to pummel the East coast and craven billionaires and mad kings continue to play pickle-ball with our rights, lifting up the light has rarely felt more important.—
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
6 Feb. 2026
-
Obi-Wan, the craven victor, revealing his true self.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
22 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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The joke is on the cowardly villagers, and on Hoja himself, all of whom now have to live in a village terrorized by two war elephants instead of one.—
Perin Gürel,
The Conversation,
22 Apr. 2026
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Your writing is disgusting and your lack of confronting this team front office head on is an enormous act of cowardly proportions.—
Ira Winderman,
Sun Sentinel,
19 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
As dawn approached, chicken and waffles were served.—
Peter Slevin,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
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Chick-fil-A in Boston's Copley Square is offering a free original chicken sandwich on May 4.—
Neal Riley,
CBS News,
4 May 2026
Adjective
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This gutless predator not only preyed upon a child ... but then fled from accountability.—
Jesse Sarles,
CBS News,
21 Mar. 2026
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And all the while, our gutless politicians watch from the sidelines so as to not interfere and risk angering their party.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
27 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Some also have lost lawyers, dismayed by the pusillanimous behavior of their leaders.—
Michael Hiltzik,
Los Angeles Times,
28 May 2025
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The second believed the United States could attain comprehensive security through military-technological means and saw diplomacy as a quixotic or pusillanimous enterprise that dishonored and weakened the country.—
A. Wess Mitchell,
Foreign Affairs,
22 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Coward.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/coward. Accessed 7 May. 2026.
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