English Explanatory Dictionary

craven

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Unwilling to fight; lacking even the rudiments of courage; extremely cowardly.
noun
  1. A coward.
verb
  1. To make craven.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A former local government district in North Yorkshire, England, merged in 2023 into the North Yorkshire unitary authority.
  3. A village in the Rural Municipality of Longlaketon No. 219, Saskatchewan, Canada.
  4. A locality in the MidCoast council area, eastern New South Wales, Australia.

Pronunciation

/ˈkɹeɪ.vən/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-craven.wav

Word forms

craven more craven most craven cravens cravening cravened

Etymology

From Middle English cravant, either borrowed from Old French cravanté (“defeated”), past participle of cravanter (ultimately from Latin crepare), or a modification of creaunt (“defeated”) after craven (“to crave”).

Synonyms

backboneless base bitch-ass boneless caitiff candy-assed chicken chicken-hearted chicken-livered chickenshit courageless cowardish cowardly cowardy cowhearted cowish craven cravenhearted cringey dastard dastardly dickless dough-faced fainthearted fearful fraidy gizzardless heartless invalorous invertebrate gutless hen-hearted kiasi lily-livered liver-faced liver-hearted low-hearted miching milky milk-livered mouse-hearted mousy nerveless niddering nidering niding nithing nutless pigeon-livered poltroonish poor-spirited punk pusillanimous pussylike ratlike rabbit-hearted recrayed retromingent sissy spineless

Derived words

cravenly cravenness cry craven uncraven Carleton-in-Craven Craven Arms Craven County Craven Plateau Sutton-in-Craven Thornton-in-Craven
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