poltroon

noun pol·troon \ päl-ˈtrün \

Examples: poltroon in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of poltroon

: a spiritless coward : craven

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Examples of poltroon in a Sentence

those poltroons in the state legislature who have caved in to bigotry on this important issue of basic civil rights

Recent Examples of poltroon from the Web

When did conservatives become such a miserable gaggle of public poltroons?

— charles p. pierce, Esquire, "Look at All These Republican Snowflakes," 13 Apr. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'poltroon.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

When you get down to synonyms, a "poltroon" is just a "chicken." Barnyard chickens are fowl that have long been noted for timidity, and the name "chicken" has been applied to human cowards since the 17th century. "Poltroon" has been used for wimps and cravens for even longer, since the early 16th century at least. And if you remember that chickens are dubbed "poultry," you may guess that the birds and the cowards are linked by etymology as well as synonymy. English picked up "poltroon" from Middle French, which in turn got it from Old Italian poltrone, meaning "coward." The Italian term has been traced to the Latin pullus, a root that is also an ancestor of "pullet" (a young hen) and "poultry."

Origin and Etymology of poltroon

Middle French poultron, from Old Italian poltrone, probably akin to poltro colt, ultimately from Latin pullus young of an animal — more at foal

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1529

in the meaning defined above

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