Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The character or nature of a poltroon; cowardice; baseness of mind; want of spirit.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Cowardice; want of spirit; pusillanimity.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Cowardice ; want ofspirit ;pusillanimity .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun abject pusillanimity
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word poltroonery.
Examples
-
Because the driver has (as is his wont) omitted such petit-bourgeois poltroonery as insurance, driving licence and vehicle registration, it will not matter if he is on every visit tracked from low Earth orbit by some huge American spy satellite.
Blatancy Award Dungeekin 2009
-
Because the driver has (as is his wont) omitted such petit-bourgeois poltroonery as insurance, driving licence and vehicle registration, it will not matter if he is on every visit tracked from low Earth orbit by some huge American spy satellite.
Archive 2009-02-01 Dungeekin 2009
-
Abdication of responsibility mothered by political poltroonery, thy name is Congress.
Bruce Fein: Congressional Abdication to the Fed Bruce Fein 2010
-
Abdication of responsibility mothered by political poltroonery, thy name is Congress.
Bruce Fein: Congressional Abdication to the Fed Bruce Fein 2010
-
I'm used to it; not the least irony of my undetected poltroonery is the awe my fearsome reputation inspires.
Watershed 2010
-
Abdication of responsibility mothered by political poltroonery, thy name is Congress.
Bruce Fein: Congressional Abdication to the Fed Bruce Fein 2010
-
I couldn't believe such poltroonery, myself, and said so, loudly.
The Sky Writer Geoff Barbanell 2010
-
We dare not stigmatize Argyle with poltroonery; for, though his life was marked by no action of bravery, yet he behaved with so much composure and dignity in the final and closing scene, that his conduct upon the present and similar occasions, should be rather imputed to indecision than to want of courage.
A Legend of Montrose 2008
-
I descended the glen more slowly than they, often looking back, and not ill pleased with the poltroonery of my companions, which left me to my own perplexed and moody humour, and induced them to hasten into the broader dale.
The Monastery 2008
-
Moreover, he had no shame in his poltroonery like the recreant
optimusprime commented on the word poltroonery
H.L. Mencken, 1922, "The Libertine": "Even more effective than the fiscal barrier (between man and philandering) is the barrier of poltroonery. The one character that distinguishes man from the other higher vertebrata is his excessive timorousness, his easy yielding, his incapacity for adventures without a crowd behind him."
May 12, 2008
wittman commented on the word poltroonery
Thomas Carlyle, 1843, "Past and Present": "A conscious abhorrence and intolerance of Folly, of Baseness, Stupidity, Poltroonery and all that brood of things, dwells deep in some men..."
July 27, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word poltroonery
Cf. French (la) poltronnerie - "cowardice"
July 27, 2009
jaime_d commented on the word poltroonery
from Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution
March 6, 2011