dastard

English

Etymology

From Middle English, most likely from Old Norse dæstr (“exhausted”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈdɑːstəd/, /ˈdæstəd/, X-SAMPA: /"d{st@d/
• (GenAm) IPA: /ˈdæstɚd/, X-SAMPA: /"d{st@`d/

Noun

dastard (plural dastards)

1. A malicious coward; a dishonorable sneak.
   • Shakespeare

     You are all recreants and dastards, and delight to live in slavery to the nobility.

Adjective

dastard (comparative more dastard, superlative most dastard)

1. meanly shrinking from danger, cowardly, dastardly
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. IV, Happy

     Observe, too, that this is all a modern affair; belongs not to the old heroic times, but to these dastard new times. ‘Happiness our being’s end and aim’ is at bottom, if we will count well, not yet two centuries old in the world.

References

• dastard in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

The Free Dictionary: Dastard

Derived terms

• dastardly
• dastardness

Verb

dastard (third-person singular simple present dastards, present participle dastarding, simple past and past participle dastarded)

1. To dastardize.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)