cower

English

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German kuren or from Scandinavian (Icelandic kúra (“to doze”)). Compare German kauern (“to squat”). Unrelated to coward, which is of Latin origin.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aʊər

Verb

cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)

1. To crouch or cringe in fear.

   He'd be useless in war. He'd just cower in his bunker until the enemy came in and shot him, or until the war was over.

   • Dryden

     Our dame sits cowering o'er a kitchen fire.

   • Goldsmith

     Like falcons, cowering on the nest.

Translations

to crouch in fear

• Bulgarian: свивам се (bg) (svivam se), треперя (bg) (treperja)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 抖縮 (cmn), 抖缩 (cmn) (doǔsuō), 退縮 (cmn), 退缩 (cmn) (tuìsuō)

• Czech: krčit se (cs)
• Finnish: kyyristellä (fi), kyyristyä (fi)
• French: se recroqueviller (fr), se tapir (fr)

• German: kauern (de)
• Japanese: 踞る (ja) (うずくまる, uzukumaru)
• Norwegian: krympe seg (no)
• Russian: съёживаться (ru) (sʺjóživatʹsja)  impf., съёжиться (ru) (sʺjóžitʹsja)  pf., сжиматься (ru) (sžimátʹsja)  impf., сжаться (ru) (sžátʹsja)  pf.
• Spanish: encogerse (es), amilanarse (es)

See also

• coward
• cowardice

Etymology 2

Verb

cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To cherish with care.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.