poltroon
Contents
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
- poltron (obsolete)
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French poltron, from Italian poltrone.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
poltroon (plural poltroons)
- An ignoble or total coward; a dastard; a mean-spirited wretch.
- c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act I, Scene 1,[1]
- Patience is for poltroons, such as he:
- He durst not sit there, had your father lived.
- 1727, Daniel Defoe, An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions, London: J. Roberts, Chapter 8, p. 144,[2]
- For the Devil’s a Coward in Nature,
- A pitiful sorry Poltroon;
- If you take but the Whip, he’ll give you the Slip;
- And before you can lash him, he’ll run.
- 1778, George Washington, to Charles Lee following an act of insubordination
- You damned poltroon, you never tried them!
- 1842, Nicholas Michell, The Traduced: An Historical Romance, London: T. & W. Boone, Volume I, Chapter 28, pp. 266-267,[3]
- "To gain life by means of a breach of faith and honour, were indeed to render myself the poltroon, and the villain my accusers believe me."
- 1951, P. G. Wodehouse, 'The Old Reliable', Hutchinson, London: 1981, p 162,
- The sounds outside had ceased...But somebody had been there, and she proposed to look into the matter thoroughly. There was nothing of the poltroon about Adela Shannon Cork.
- c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act I, Scene 1,[1]
SynonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit
an ignoble or arrant coward
AdjectiveEdit
poltroon (comparative more poltroon, superlative most poltroon)
- Cowardly.
- 1926, T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Chapter 82,[4]
- Accordingly, to excuse our deliberate inactivity in the north, we had to make a show of impotence, which gave them to understand that the Arabs were too poltroon to cut the line near Maan and keep it cut.
- 1926, T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Chapter 82,[4]
TranslationsEdit
cowardly — see cowardly
ReferencesEdit
- poltroon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
