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craven

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craven¹

  • /ˈkɹeɪ.vən/

Rhymes with -eɪvən

Where it comes from

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”).

adjective more craven · most craven

  1. Unwilling to fight; lacking even the rudiments of courage; extremely cowardly. The poor craven bridegroom said never a word.

    Similar: backboneless, base, soft, bitch-ass, boneless, caitiff, candy-assed, chicken, chicken-hearted, chicken-livered, chickenshit, courageless

noun cravens

  1. archaic A coward. He is a craven and a villain else.

    Similar: bottler, caitiff, candy-ass, candy-arse, coistril, coward, chicken, chicken liver, chickenshit, cocktail, cowardy custard, craven

verb cravens · cravening · cravened

  1. archaic To make craven. There is a prohibition so divine / That cravens my weak hand.

Craven²

Where it comes from

From Proto-Brythonic; equivalent to Welsh craf (“garlic”) + the suffix -an. Compare Cremona.

proper noun

  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.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: cowardly, coward, poltroon, fearful, recreant, skipton, courageless, invertebrate, spineless, invalorous, gutless, heartless, backboneless, faint-hearted, faint, unvalorous

Translations

Every language

adj extremely cowardly

Españolcobarde
Portuguêscovarde
Françaislâche
Deutschfeige
Русскиймалоду́шный malodúšnyj

noun coward

Españolcobarde
Portuguêscovarde
Françaiscouard, lâche
DeutschFeigling, feiger Hund

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Cite this
MLA

"craven." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/craven. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

craven. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/craven

Chicago

"craven." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/craven.

BibTeX
@misc{craven_2026,
  title = {craven},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/craven},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}