different between coward vs pawl

English

Etymology

From Middle English coward, from Old French coart, cuard ( > French couard), from coue (“tail”), coe + -ard (pejorative agent noun suffix); coue, coe is in turn from Latin cauda. The reference seems to be to an animal “turning tail”, or having its tail between its legs, especially a dog. Unrelated to English cower. Displaced native Old English earg.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: kou'?d, IPA^(key): /?ka??d/
• (US) enPR: kou'?rd, IPA^(key): /?ka??d/
• Hyphenation: co?ward
• Homophone: cowered

Noun

coward (plural cowards)

1. A person who lacks courage.
   • 1856: Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary, Part II Chapter IV, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

     He tortured himself to find out how he could make his declaration to her, and always halting between the fear of displeasing her and the shame of being such a coward, he wept with discouragement and desire. Then he took energetic resolutions, wrote letters that he tore up, put it off to times that he again deferred.

Synonyms

• chicken
• scaredy pants
• yellowbelly
• See also Thesaurus:coward

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

coward (comparative more coward, superlative most coward)

1. Cowardly.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act II, Scene 4,^[1]

     He rais’d the house with loud and coward cries.

   • 1709, Matthew Prior, “Celia to Damon” in Poems on Several Occasions, London: Jacob Tonson, 2nd edition, p. 89,^[2]

     Invading Fears repel my Coward Joy;

     And Ills foreseen the pleasant Bliss destroy.

2. (heraldry, of a lion) Borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.

Verb

coward (third-person singular simple present cowards, present participle cowarding, simple past and past participle cowarded)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To intimidate.
   • 1820, John Chalkhill, Thealma and Clearchus

     The first he coped with was their captain, whom / His sword sent headless to seek out a tomb. / This cowarded the valour of the rest, […]

References

• Coward in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

English

Etymology

17th c., perhaps from Low German or Dutch pal (“catch (mechanism)”), or from either French pal (“stake”) or épaule (“shoulder”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??l/

  Rhymes: -??l

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /p?l/
• Homophones: pall, Paul

Noun

pawl (plural pawls)

1. A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.
   • 1994, Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing:

     The nails in the rim of the wheel went ratcheting over the leather pawl and the wheel slowed and came to a stop and the woman turned to the crowd and smiled.

2. A similar device to prevent motion in other mechanisms besides ratchets.

Derived terms

• pawl bitt
• pawl rim

Translations

Verb

pawl (third-person singular simple present pawls, present participle pawling, simple past and past participle pawled)

1. (transitive) To stop with a pawl.

Derived terms

• pawl the capstan

Further reading

• pawl on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

Anagrams

• Walp, plaw