as in afraid
having or showing a shameful lack of courage
vented his spleen at those milk-livered men who refused to fight for king and country
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for milk-livered
Adjective
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Even with more women 55 and older in the workforce than ever before, women often are afraid to talk about menopause in the office.—
Laura Trujillo,
USA Today,
7 Oct. 2025 -
Bohemian homes are never afraid of color, particularly when AD100 designer Justina Blakeney is involved.—
Julia Harrison,
Architectural Digest,
6 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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White outdoor lights may also attract flies, so switch to yellow bulbs.—
Arricca Elin SanSone,
Southern Living,
10 Oct. 2025
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As the signature yellow-and-white audio waveform flashed across ABC screens, the first high-stakes emergency sent crews rushing to a Kane Brown concert at Ascend Amphitheater.—
Bryan West,
Nashville Tennessean,
10 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Continue reading … 'TRYING MY BEST' – Country star 'scared' after anti-Trump song ignites social media firestorm.—
,
FOXNews.com,
8 Oct. 2025
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Kids are all scared and all alone.—
Armando Tinoco,
Deadline,
7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Despite Lockjaw’s raid of their town, which reads as akin to an ICE campaign, Sensei isn’t frightened, confused, or shaken.—
Robert Daniels,
Time,
10 Oct. 2025
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The film revealed that when his pal John Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982 at age 33, Candy was visibly shaken and frightened.—
Stephanie Nolasco,
FOXNews.com,
10 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Be careful when handling debris that may have blown into your yard.—
NC Weather Bot,
Charlotte Observer,
11 Oct. 2025
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Integrating such a messy light source into a silicon photonics chip required careful engineering.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
10 Oct. 2025
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
Adjective
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That larger significance is remarkably unheroic and fatalistic.—
Gabriel Winslow-Yost,
Harper's Magazine,
23 Sep. 2024
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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
Adjective
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In practice, despite his rhetoric, Israel’s longest serving prime minister’s security policy was widely seen as cautious and relatively restrained, even derided as cowardly by political rivals, who also mocked his inability to make decisive moves.—
Tal Shalev,
CNN Money,
29 Sep. 2025
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Violence in a place of worship is a cowardly and criminal act.—
Hollie Silverman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Sep. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Milk-livered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/milk-livered. Accessed 13 Oct. 2025.
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