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Webster 1913 Edition


Poltroonery

Pol-troon′er-y

,
Noun.
[F.
poltronnerie
; cf. It.
poltroneria
.]
Cowardice; want of spirit; pusillanimity.

Webster 1828 Edition


Poltroonery

POLTROON'ERY

,
Noun.
Cowardice; baseness of mind; want of spirit.

Definition 2024


poltroonery

poltroonery

English

Noun

poltroonery (countable and uncountable, plural poltrooneries)

  1. Cowardice; want of spirit; pusillanimity.
    • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. IX, Abbot Samson
      Genius, Poet: do we know what these words mean? […] Nature’s own sacred voice heard once more athwart the dreary boundless element of hearsaying and canting, of twaddle and poltroonery, in which the bewildered Earth, nigh perishing, has lost its way.
    • 1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Collins, 1998, Chapter 12,
      “Your Majesty, your Majesty,” he said, “are you going to tolerate this mutiny, this poltroonery? This is a panic, this is a rout.”

References

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