different between cower vs hurkle

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?ka??/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?ka??/
• Rhymes: -a?.?(?)

Etymology 1

From Middle English cowre, couren, curen, 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”). Unrelated to coward, which is of Latin origin.

Verb

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

1. (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.

2. (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, Thalaba the Destroyer:

     The mother bird had mov’d not,
     But cowering o’er her nestlings,
     Sate confident and fearless,
     And watch’d the wonted guest.

3. (transitive) To cause to cower; to frighten into submission.

Translations

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.

Anagrams

• Crowe

English

Alternative forms

• hurple, hirple, hurtle

Etymology

A word of unknown origin, perhaps cognate with Scots hirple (“to limp”) or Dutch hurken (“to squat”), plus the suffix -le. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -??(r)k?l

Verb

hurkle (third-person singular simple present hurkles, present participle hurkling, simple past and past participle hurkled)

1. (intransitive) to draw in the parts of the body, especially with pain or cold
2. to cower
3. (of the limbs) to contract, to pull in

Scots

Etymology

Unknown. May come from Old Norse, possibly related to Dutch hurken (“to squat”). This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [h?rkl], [h?rkl]

Verb

hurkle (third-person singular present hurkles, present participle hurklin, past hurkled, past participle hurkled)

1. to sit huddled in a crouched position either for warmth or secrecy, to draw oneself together like a crouching animal
2. to walk with the body in a crouching position

Derived terms

• hurklin (“hunchbacked, misshapen”)

Noun

hurkle (plural hurkles)

1. (anatomy) the upper part of the thigh, the hip

Derived terms

• hurkle-bane (“hip bone”)