cowardとは

意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (英国発音) enPR: kou'əd, IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊəd/
  • (米国発音) enPR: kou'ərd, IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊɚd/
  • ハイフネーション: co‧ward
  • Homophone: cowered

名詞

coward (複数形 cowards)

1. A person who lacks courage.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, Act II, scene ii, page 117, column 1:

     Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: […]

   • 1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part II Chapter IV, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

     He tortured himself to find out how he could make his declaration to her, and always halting between the fear of displeasing her and the shame of being such a coward, he wept with discouragement and desire. Then he took energetic resolutions, wrote letters that he tore up, put it off to times that he again deferred.

同意語

• chicken
• scaredy pants
• yellowbelly
• See also Thesaurus:coward

派生語

形容詞

coward (comparative more coward, superlative most coward)

1. Cowardly.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     It is a coward and servile humour, for a man to disguise and hide himselfe under a maske, and not dare to shew himselfe as he is.

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 4,^[1]

     He rais’d the house with loud and coward cries.

   • 1709, Matthew Prior, “Celia to Damon” in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Jacob Tonson, 2nd edition, p. 89,^[2]

     Invading Fears repel my Coward Joy;

     And Ills foreseen the pleasant Bliss destroy.

2. (heraldry, of a lion) Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.

動詞

coward (三人称単数 現在形 cowards, 現在分詞 cowarding, 過去形および過去分詞形 cowarded)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To intimidate.
   • (Can we date this quote?), John Chalkhill, Thealma and Clearchus

     The first he coped with was their captain, whom / His sword sent headless to seek out a tomb. / This cowarded the valour of the rest, […]

参照

• Coward in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)