as in cowardly
having or showing a shameful lack of courage
the new biography casts the romanticized outlaw in a much more vicious and unheroic light
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Recent Examples of unheroic
Yes, Arsenal fan Neel from New Delhi held his nerve on the final day to shake off the persistent and heroic challenge of six-year-old Wilfred — and the meandering, distinctly unheroic challenge of a 51-year-old journalist.
—
Oliver Kay,
New York Times,
26 May 2026
That larger significance is remarkably unheroic and fatalistic.
—
Gabriel Winslow-Yost,
Harper's Magazine,
23 Sep. 2024
In the world of The Boys, based on the gleefully scabrous 2000s indie comic-book series of the same name by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson, superheroes are real, pop-culture-dominating, and with rare exceptions, entirely unheroic.
—
Brian Hiatt,
Rolling Stone,
13 June 2024
From the costumes to the makeup, from visual effects to sound design, the goal was to be as realistic as possible and underscore the movie’s anti-war and deliberately unheroic depiction of an ordinary soldier in battle.
—
Scott Roxborough,
The Hollywood Reporter,
10 Mar. 2023
John’s figures are wood stained in unheroic reality.
—
Bob Guccione Jr,
SPIN,
17 Feb. 2023
But rational reasoning is no way to reach Josephine, as the adults around her discover one by one — beginning with Spencer, played with commendably unheroic tetchiness by Harington, as his sensitive support gradually sours into parental oneupmanship.
—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
2 Feb. 2023
And if the moderate theory appears cautious and unheroic, well, it's got nothing on the unheroic inactivity of most Republicans hoping to defang Trumpism, who have convinced themselves that the way to avoid a worse replay of the 2020 endgame is not to fight him openly at all.
—
Ross Douthat New York Times,
Star Tribune,
7 June 2021
Oliver Kay,
New York Times,
26 May 2026
That larger significance is remarkably unheroic and fatalistic.
—
Gabriel Winslow-Yost,
Harper's Magazine,
23 Sep. 2024
In the world of The Boys, based on the gleefully scabrous 2000s indie comic-book series of the same name by writer Garth Ennis and artist Darick Robertson, superheroes are real, pop-culture-dominating, and with rare exceptions, entirely unheroic.
—
Brian Hiatt,
Rolling Stone,
13 June 2024
From the costumes to the makeup, from visual effects to sound design, the goal was to be as realistic as possible and underscore the movie’s anti-war and deliberately unheroic depiction of an ordinary soldier in battle.
—
Scott Roxborough,
The Hollywood Reporter,
10 Mar. 2023
John’s figures are wood stained in unheroic reality.
—
Bob Guccione Jr,
SPIN,
17 Feb. 2023
But rational reasoning is no way to reach Josephine, as the adults around her discover one by one — beginning with Spencer, played with commendably unheroic tetchiness by Harington, as his sensitive support gradually sours into parental oneupmanship.
—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
2 Feb. 2023
And if the moderate theory appears cautious and unheroic, well, it's got nothing on the unheroic inactivity of most Republicans hoping to defang Trumpism, who have convinced themselves that the way to avoid a worse replay of the 2020 endgame is not to fight him openly at all.
—
Ross Douthat New York Times,
Star Tribune,
7 June 2021
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unheroic
Adjective
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Or maybe the problem is Cape Fear itself for being too cowardly to commit to the certainty that drove the previous versions of this story.
-
But even the most perfect Constitution can be undone by the wicked with the help of the bought, the stupid, and the cowardly.
Adjective
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The ruling leaves trans student-athletes and their advocates feeling angry and afraid.
-
Pregnant mothers are afraid of their babies not being able to have a home.
Adjective
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In May, a frightened horse rammed into another carriage, causing the vehicle to flip over, injuring the driver.
-
Rodríguez acknowledged that many remain too frightened to return home even after inspections declared some buildings safe.
Adjective
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In 2024, The Onion purchased Infowars, the conspiracy website born of the craven lunatic/Sandy Hook shooting denier Alex Jones.
-
It’s populated by craven, cowardly traitors.
Adjective
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Some also have lost lawyers, dismayed by the pusillanimous behavior of their leaders.
-
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.
Adjective
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Humans are scared of him, so Nero becomes Rocco’s favorite thief.
-
People are very scared of being human.
Adjective
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Keane called out the Red Wings as gutless for waiting for a home game to exact revenge.
-
But this seems a lot more gutless than ruthless.
Adjective
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The story has the dastardly president of the planet Spaceball (Brooks) trying to steal the oxygen from Planet Druidia.
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His dastardly scheme involves using Kryptonian tech to build an all-new continent off the coast of Metropolis — even after all these years, he's still obsessed with real estate.
Cite this Entry
“Unheroic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unheroic. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.
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