cower
Appearance
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkaʊɚ/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkaʊə/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -aʊ.ə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English couren, cowre, from Middle Low German kûren (“to lie in wait; linger”) or from North Germanic (Icelandic kúra (“to doze”)). Cognate with German kauern (“to squat”), Dutch koeren (“to keep watch (in a cowered position)”), Serbo-Croatian kutriti (“to lie in a bent position”), Swedish kura (“huddle, cower”). Unrelated to coward, which is of Latin origin.
Verb
[edit]cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)
- (intransitive) To crouch or cringe, or to avoid or shy away from something, 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.
- 1700, John Dryden, "The Cock and the Fox", in Fables, Ancient and Modern, published March 1700:
- Our dame sits cowering o'er a kitchen fire.
- (intransitive, archaic) To crouch in general.
- 1764, Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller:
- Some sterner virtues o’er the mountain’s breast
May sit, like falcons, cowering on the nest
- 1801, Robert Southey, “(please specify the page)”, in Thalaba the Destroyer, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] [F]or T[homas] N[orton] Longman and O[wen] Rees, […], by Biggs and Cottle, […], →OCLC:
- The mother bird had mov’d not,
But cowering o’er her nestlings,
Sate confident and fearless,
And watch’d the wonted guest.
- (transitive) To cause to cower; to frighten into submission.
- 1895, Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industry of Kansas:
- This done, their doubts will vanish, and they will stand confronted by an object lesson which must have the effect either to arouse them to a determination to banish despotism from the land, or cower them into submission and servitude.
- 2007, DJ Birmingham, The Queen's Tale: The Struggle for the Survival of Ireland, page 170:
- My spirit will cower them and make them wish they had never risen up against me.
- 2010, Marilyn Brown Oden, The Dead Saint:
- A vicious Mafia threat intended to cower him—but the chief doesn't cower.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to crouch in fear
|
See also
[edit]Etymology 2
[edit](This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Verb
[edit]cower (third-person singular simple present cowers, present participle cowering, simple past and past participle cowered)
- (obsolete, transitive) To cherish with care.
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/aʊ.ə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/aʊ.ə(ɹ)/2 syllables
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle Low German
- English terms derived from North Germanic languages
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with archaic senses
- English terms with quotations
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Fear