[f. COWARD sb. + -LY1.]
1. Having the character or spirit of a coward; wanting in courage; pusillanimous, timorous.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., I. (Arb.), 39. Souldiours be not the cowardleste theves.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 251. A … feareful, cowardly, and dastardly loute.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. vii. 6. The Cowardly Rascalls that ranne from the battaile.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low C. Warres, 636. Their weak and Cowardly Hearts.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., vi. I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right.
2. Characteristic of or befitting a coward; proceeding from fear or a spirit of cowardice.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., V. i. 104. I do finde it Cowardly … For feare of what might fall, so to preuent The time of life.
1659. South, Serm., Wks. 1823, I. 83 (J.). A cowardly silence in Christ’s cause.
1796. Coleridge, Ode Departing Year, viii. At cowardly distance … secure thou hast stood.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 33. The affront was not only brutal, but cowardly.
