(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.
Pusillanimous
Definition:
(a.) Destitute of a manly or courageous strength and firmness of mind; of weak spirit; mean-spirited; spiritless; cowardly; -- said of persons, as, a pussillanimous prince.
(a.) Evincing, or characterized by, weakness of mind, and want of courage; feeble; as, pusillanimous counsels.
Example Sentences:
(1) It is a pusillanimous, jargon-ridden, self-perpetuating proof of Parkinson's law .
(2) Is there any Eurosceptic in this pusillanimous cabinet with the guts to speak his mind and put principles and country before personal ambition?” the Mail asks.
(3) To be a bystander when one's discipline does offer insights and methods of value discernment is pusillanimous.
(4) He was the government’s top Europe adviser at David Cameron’s side throughout Britain’s EU renegotiation, where some accused him of pusillanimity in the face of Brussels intransigence .
(5) Result: the normally admirable Mr Grieve risked seeming a pusillanimous ministerial jobsworth unwilling to let the public learn the full truth about our foolish and meddling heir to the throne.
(6) But to make that a reason to abandon the policy would be pusillanimous in the extreme.
(7) This may be just what ministers' friends say to appease backbench plotters feeling betrayed by the apparent pusillanimity of cabinet failure to jump after Purnell.
(8) The Mail made clear its frustration: “Is there any Eurosceptic in this pusillanimous cabinet with the guts to speak his mind and put principles and country before personal ambition?” But while the Times called Boris Johnson “right”, the Sun is expected to take a far tougher line on a man the paper has already outed, along with Michael Gove, as being on the side of in.
(9) Britain and France, Europe's two military heavyweights, took the lead on the Libyan intervention in the teeth of outright opposition from Germany and pusillanimity in Washington.
(10) Why aren’t these faithless, pusillanimous people retaliating as they should, by surging towards Ukip with cries of revenge against all Muslims?
(11) For some, Wapping planted a decisive nail in the coffin of what Andrew Neil, a former Murdoch editor, has described as "all that was wrong with British industry: pusillanimous management, pig-headed unions, crazy restrictive practices, endless strikes and industrial disruption, and archaic technology".
(12) But only nine days into his administration, Clinton found himself at a press conference explaining “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, an awkward (and many thought pusillanimous) compromise to permit gays and lesbians to serve in the military.
(13) The British government – pusillanimous as ever – thinks it is too sensitive a subject for us to ask the US why it is flouting an international agreement.
(14) The question then is, is this pusillanimity on his part?
(15) The pusillanimity of the remain campaign’s failure to counter these claims was indefensible.
(16) Amid so many humanitarian emergencies, it would be callous of Mr Cameron to pursue this nomination and pusillanimous of the secretary general to accept it.
(17) Heads should roll," he wrote on his website, "Isn't it really about time we decent, nice, liberal people stopped being so pusillanimously terrified of being thought 'Islamophobic' and stood up for decent, nice, liberal values?"