(n.) Want of courage to face danger; extreme timidity; pusillanimity; base fear of danger or hurt; lack of spirit.
Example Sentences:
(1) The bestselling Game of Thrones author George RR Martin has offered to screen The Interview in his own independent cinema, in the wake of what he described as “a stunning display of corporate cowardice” from Sony and America’s cinema chains.
(2) The failure of Liam Fox, the defence secretary, to even visit Leuchars to explain his decision is viewed as cowardice here, and Scotland's disproportionate share of the cost of the cuts to military spending is seen as choice rather than necessity.
(3) The promoters added: “We ask at this time that we all continue to support the city of Manchester and all those families affected by this cowardice and senseless violence.
(4) Former Bank of England policymaker David Blanchflower today accused the government of cowardice in planning huge cuts in public spending to tackle the budget deficit.
(5) Some might say it is a harsh assessment with which to go public, not least because Di Canio had earlier accused the South Korean of cowardice, suggesting Ji had ducked out of a first-half header when presented with a glorious opportunity to equalise after Sunderland had gone a goal down.
(6) His allies charge the prime minister with cowardice for dispatching one of his most zealously reforming ministers.
(7) Khodorkovsky's lawyers said that if Putin refused to attend – which seems probable – Russia's paramount leader would be guilty of "public cowardice".
(8) It's about cowardice and failure – at best, reconciling yourself to being an average joe.
(9) David Cameron has accused him of cowardice, his mandarins are being accused of bias and UK ministers are trying to usurp his role as Scotland's most influential ambassador.
(10) The movie expands the scope across the Atlantic, detailing the chaotic run-up to an Iraq-like war with all the bullying, incompetence, cowardice and manipulation that most likely got us into the real one.
(11) The problem with news is not a quaint moral cowardice.
(12) The moral cowardice of the Irish polity results in those women, often alone and shivery, whom you see on Ryanair flights.
(13) Joseph Thomas, policy officer for Interns Anonymous, said: "These documents show cowardice and a lack of determination to do anything.
(14) Not only because it is gross cowardice to place the weak and vulnerable in the frontline in this way.
(15) In response to a question about voluntary euthanasia, Helen Joyce, the international editor of the Economist which has written editorials in support of the policy, said “political cowardice” was the reason it was not yet legal.
(16) Collins argued in her speech that the MPs had failed to speak out about the abuse, carried out mostly by Asian men, because of political correctness, cowardice or selfishness, and were thus guilty of grave misconduct.
(17) Be vigilant against it and don’t allow hate to divide us.” Speaking outside the Didsbury mosque, Haffar sought to dispel reports that Abedi had worked at the centre, and said: “We express concern that a small section of the media are manufacturing stories and making unfounded points.” He also expressed his outrage at the attack, calling it a “horrific atrocity” and saying “this act of cowardice has no place in our religion or any other religion”.
(18) Cowardice that has continued throughout this trial.
(19) Alison Goldsworthy has accused the Liberal Democrats of 'cowardice' and said she intends to take legal action.
(20) Cameron trumped Miliband's cowardice by also pledging no revaluation.
Cower
Definition:
(v. i.) To stoop by bending the knees; to crouch; to squat; hence, to quail; to sink through fear.
(v. t.) To cherish with care.
Example Sentences:
(1) Stephen Fisher, one of the archaeologists recording the site, says digging the trenches would also have been training for the men, who would soon have to do it for real, and the little slit trenches scattered across the site, just big enough for one man to cower in, might represent their first efforts.
(2) In the cities worst hit by street fighting, such as Aden, civilians are either cowering at home to avoid sniper fire and bombardment or have joined the more than half million Yemenis forced out of their houses and now looking for food and shelter.
(3) Reporters were initially told that one of Bin Laden's wives was killed while he was using her as a human shield, prompting headlines such as "Osama bin Laden killed cowering behind his 'human shield' wife ".
(4) The trial on Friday heard from defence ballistics expert Tom Wolmarans who testified that it was impossible to be certain how Steenkamp fell when she was hit by bullets, challenging the prosecution's implication that she might have been cowering in fear.
(5) The special constable found his driver, cowered behind her shield and watched a brick fly through the air, strike the ground and split in two.
(6) Infantile delivery also frequently serves to take the curse off self-publicity; sleight of hand for those who find "my programme is on BBC2 tonight" too presumptuous and exposing, and prefer to cower behind the low-status imbecility of "I done rote a fingy for da tellybox!"
(7) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ed Miliband challenges David Cameron to name a date for a TV debate The Labour leader renewed his call to Cameron to face him in the one-on-one debate proposed by broadcasters on 30 April, saying that the prime minister was “cowering from the public”.
(8) The chilling claim that we are all surrounded by an invisible peril was the prelude to evoking an evil that we had long thought was behind us, with May declaring: "It is walking our streets, supplying shops and supermarkets, working in fields, factories or nail bars, trapped in brothels or cowering behind the curtains in an ordinary street: slavery."
(9) The Labour party have been hiding in the shadows and cowering in fear.
(10) The Prison Service launched an investigation after footage filmed in Forest Bank showed an inmate, who appeared to be hallucinating because of the effect of drugs, writhing on a bed in his cell and cowering in fear at the sight of an apple.
(11) Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian I don't drink as a rule, but one proud little abode cowering in the shadow of the monstrosity that is the Beetham Tower is a lovely little old Manchester boozer.
(12) Mangena said Steenkamp was shot in the right hip and was cowering when she was hit in the head.
(13) State radio went dead, and fearful residents cowered in their homes.
(14) He is cowering in the tradition of silence that he inherited,” said Jason Tompkins, an organizer with Black Lives Matter of Chicago.
(15) Furthermore, reading through his old interviews, it seems this is very much the new, improved, media-friendly Richard Ayoade: one journalist who encountered him just as the IT Crowd broke found him "cowering" behind his glasses and complaining that he was "terrible at talking, with words".
(16) Survivors fled into three eastern enclaves where the Bosnian republican army had resisted: Goražde, Žepa and Srebrenica, their populations swelled by displaced deportees, cowering, bombarded relentlessly and largely cut off from supplies of food and medicine.
(17) An age group from 30 to 78 years has been cowered with an average age of 59.
(18) The journey has caused the burger to steam into greyness, glueing itself to its soggy bun.The £32 steak appears, cowering in the corner of its container like a whipped puppy.
(19) Valentina, a 61-year-old market trader in Ilovaysk, said she had spent 23 days cowering in a cellar with several dozen others, and had been threatened by Ukrainian volunteer battalions who tried to use her and others as human shields and stole mobile phones and other property.
(20) For the left upper limb, the site of amputation was at the level of the Cower third of the forearm.