Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The state or quality of being pusillanimous; cowardice.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state or condition of being pusillanimous; lack of that spirit which constitutes courage or fortitude; cowardliness; timidity.
- noun Synonyms Poltroonery. See
coward , n.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality of being pusillanimous; weakness of spirit; cowardliness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The quality or state of being
pusillanimous ; thevice of beingtimid andcowardly , and thus not living up to one's fullpotential ;pusillanimousness .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun contemptible fearfulness
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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He persisted in pursuing the track of the enemy; his hardihood increased with their prudence; their circumspection he called pusillanimity, their retreat flight; he despised, that he might hope.
History of the Expedition to Russia Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 Philippe-Paul S��gur 1826
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Hence the vice opposed to pride by default is akin to the vice of pusillanimity, which is opposed by default to magnanimity.
Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas
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The theologian will call his pusillanimity, "inward feeling;" "warning from heaven;" "secret inspiration;" but he who knoweth man, will say that this is nothing more than a mechanical motion, produced by a physical or natural cause.
The System of Nature, Volume 2 Paul Henri Thiry Holbach 1756
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Secondly, we shall consider pusillanimity which is opposed to it by way of deficiency.
Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas
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Jefferson, whose own account this is, did not mention that he raised any objection to the wording of the proclamation at the time, though a few months later he referred to it in his private correspondence as a piece of "pusillanimity," because it omitted any expression of the affection of America for France.
Washington and his colleagues; a chronicle of the rise and fall of federalism Henry Jones Ford 1888
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It is this kind of pusillanimity that multiculturalism fetes and celebrates and it is the same kind of pusillanimity that Islamists prey upon when they extract concessions by flaunting their bruised psyche.
WordPress.com News 2009
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"pusillanimity" of the Administration's course, said on September 23,
Woodrow Wilson as I Know Him Joseph P. Tumulty
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First, the problem lay not so much in the pusillanimity of American leaders as in the preferences of the American public.
The Return Daniel Treisman 2011
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The Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab case highlights the pusillanimity of those who should be confronting extremism
How radical Islam seduced the academics Nick Cohen 2010
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In France there is pusillanimity attached to the slightest mention of religious communities, which has to do with a certain reading of laïcité, whereby the media, political parties and businesses, avoid targeting specific religious groups for fear of being accused of Communitarianism:
Global Voices in English » Maghreb: Ramadan Good Wishes and More 2009
brtom commented on the word pusillanimity
For this was done in the divine contempt of a general pusillanimity. (from Jubilate Agno by Christopher Smart)
December 31, 2007
cutlery commented on the word pusillanimity
"These provocations the Moriori faced as our Lord importuned, by 'turning the other cheek,' & the transgressors returned to New Zealand confirming the Moriori's apparent pusillanimity" (Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, 013.3).
January 22, 2010