Forms: 3 cueard, cuard, 4 cuward, couard, couward, couwarde, couherde, 4–6 cowart, cowarde, 5 cowerd, koward(e, 6 cowert, cow-heard, cow-herd, 3– coward. [a. OF. coart (cohart, cuard, cowairt, later couart, couard) = Pr. coart, It. codardo, f. coda, L. cauda, OF. coe tail: see -ARD.
The precise reference to tail is uncertain: it may be to an animal ‘turning tail’ in flight, or to the habit in frightened animals of drawing the tail between the hinder legs: cf. the Heraldic use in sense B 2. It is notable that in the Old French version of Reynard the Fox, Coart is the name of the hare: this may be a descriptive appellation in reference to its timidity; but it is also possible that the hare was so called originally from its tail or ‘bunt,’ so conspicuous as the animal makes off, and that the name was thence transferred to ‘hearts of hare.’]
A. sb. 1. A reproachful designation for one who displays ignoble fear or want of courage in the face of danger, pain or difficulty; an ignobly faint-hearted or pusillanimous person.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 288 [MS. Cleop. C. VI.]. He, kene þet was er cueard [v.r. eruh, kurre].
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 275/139. ‘Ouȝ, ȝe cowardes,’ quath þe king.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 593. Þou ne schalt me fynde no cowart.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. v. Like a coward faynte and hertles.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxx. 234. Come fore, sir coward! Why cowre ye behynde.
1548. Hall, Chron., 150. He … was vanqueshed of his servaunte, beyng but a cowarde and a wretche.
1562. Winȝet, Cert. Tractates, iii. (1888), I. 26. Gif ony … hid him self as ane cowart at hame.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. ii. 32. Cowards dye many times before their deaths, The valiant neuer taste of death but once. Ibid. (1602), Ham., III. i. 83. Thus Conscience does make Cowards of vs all.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 125, ¶ 9. A Coward flying from his own Shadow.
a. 1711. Ken, Edmund, Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 344. An earthly Coward is an odious Name, A Ghostly Coward an eternal Shame.
1818. Shelley, Rosal. & Helen, 254. He was a coward to the strong: He was a tyrant to the weak.
1883. G. Lloyd, Ebb & Flow, II. 241. You’ve no conception what a coward this illness has made of me.
2. Applied to animals: † a. An old appellation of the hare. † b. A cock that will not fight. Obs. c. A horse without spirit in a race.
[1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 7. Cuwaert the hare.]
1486. Bk. St. Albans, E v b. Huntyng of Hare, The coward with the short tayle [transl. AF. la cowarde ou la court cowe].
1684. R. H., Sch. Recreat., 131. If … any of your Chickens Crow clear and loud … then to the Pot or Spit with them, they are Cowards.
1880. Field, 22 May, 638/2. Don Juan … ran a coward throughout, and Dinna Forget landed her backers with ease.
1884. Illust. Sporting News, 16 Feb., 563/2. If in all stables the young ones were treated as they are at Danebury, there would be fewer rogues and cowards when it comes to racing.
3. Comb.
1727–38. Gay, Fables, XXXIV. 29. 131 (Jod.).
| He ne’er, like bullies coward-hearted, | |
| Attacks in publick, to be parted. |
B. adj. or attrib.
1. Of persons and their attributes: Destitute of courage; faint-hearted; = COWARDLY a. 1.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 455. In word he ys god ynou, & coward in dede.
1388. Wyclif, Prov. vii. 7. I biholde a ȝong man coward, that passith bi the stretis.
1393. Gower, Conf., II. 22. A! cowarde herte of love unlered, Wherof art thou so sore afered.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 96. Coward, hertlesse, vecors, iners.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xlii. 134. Kyng turnus … sore merueylled that they were … soo coward.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. x. 15. Nor undertake the same for cowheard feare. Ibid., VI. vi. 26. That craven cowherd Knight.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. i. 67. The Don excellently well upbraides and excites his coward-spirits.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XVIII. 88. From his blank visage fled the coward blood.
1796. Burns, A Man’s a Man, i. The coward-slave, we pass him by, We dare be poor for a’ that.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, III. xxix. The Father-ruffian of the band Behind him rears a coward hand!
b. Of actions, etc.; = COWARDLY a. 2.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., lxxiv. My body being dead, The coward conquest of a wretches knife.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXII. 79. Hence with those coward terms; or fight, or fly.
1728. Thomson, Spring, 303. Coward deceit, and ruffian violence.
1853. T. T. Lynch, Self-Improvement, v. 131. It is coward unfaithfulness, as well as cruelty.
c. transf. Or things.
1808. J. Barlow, Columb., III. 498. But ah, forbear to tell my stooping sire His darling hopes have fed a coward fire.
1872. Blackie, Lays Highl., 8. Not here … Lest … our coward keel returning Stint the vow that brought us here.
2. Her. Said of a lion or other beast borne as a charge: Having the tail drawn in between the legs.
c. 1500. Sc. Poem Heraldry, 133, in Q. Eliz. Acad. (1869). 98. xv maneris of lionys in armys … xiij in nomer [morné]; xiiij. liounne cowert.
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, III. xxvi. (1611), 184. This is termed a Lion Coward, for that in cowardly sort hee clappeth his taile between his legs, which is proper to all kind of beasts (hauing tailes) in case of extremity and feare.
1864. Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop., xvi. § 4 (ed. 3), 250. Three lions coward in pale.
3. quasi-adv. In the manner of a coward. rare–1.
1725. Pope, Odyss., III. 366. Tremble ye not, oh friends! and coward fly, Doom’d by the stern Telemachus to die?
