Definition of cowardice
: lack of courage or firmness of purpose
- soldiers accused of cowardice
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Examples of cowardice in a Sentence
the cowardice shown by political leaders who were willing to give the Nazis whatever they wanted
Recent Examples of cowardice from the Web
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The film follows a bourgeois family on a ski trip in the alps, only for a single moment of telling cowardice from the father to send the entire unit into a spiral of doubt, passive-aggression, and shame.
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Their cowardice will be remembered just as surely as McCain’s wartime heroism.
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Using the real-life Little Rock Nine desegregation story as a model, this children’s theater show has characters that demonstrate deep-rooted insensitivities and show cowardice amid a time of progressive cultural change.
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The Republican leadership, which has already proved shocking in its cowardice, will be even less inclined to challenge him.
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And not all of it from a conscious place of evil or even cowardice.
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Even a retiring senator is preferable to the accessorial cowardice of people like Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell.
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Conspicuously enough, the poem is about the price of false identities, of the veils people graft onto themselves out of fright, or survival, or merely cowardice.
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Being imaginative doesn’t mean being unrealistic, and caution isn’t cowardice.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cowardice.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of cowardice
Middle English cowardise, from Anglo-French coardise, from cuard — see coward
NEW! Time Traveler
First Known Use: 14th century
in the meaning defined above
See Words from the same yearcowardice Synonyms
Synonyms
cowardliness, cravenness, dastardliness, gutlessness, spinelessness;
Antonyms
bravery, courage, courageousness, daring, dauntlessness, doughtiness, fearlessness, gallantry, greatheartedness, guts, hardihood, heart, heroism, intrepidity, intrepidness, nerve, stoutness, valiance, valor, virtue;
Near Antonyms
audacity, boldness, brazenness;
backbone, fiber, fortitude, grit, gumption, mettle, pluck, spunk;
Related Words
diffidence, faintheartedness, fearfulness, timidity, timorousness;
COWARDICE Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of cowardice for English Language Learners
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: fear that makes you unable to do what is right or expected : lack of courage
COWARDICE Defined for Kids
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for cowardice Spanish Central: Translation of cowardice Nglish: Translation of cowardice for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of cowardice for Arabic speakers
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