An abject coward.

synonyms: craven, poltroon.

Roget 949: bad man, wrongdoer, worker of iniquity; evildoer etc. 913; sinner; the wicked etc. 945; bad example.    villain, rascal, scoundrel, miscreant, budmash^†, caitiff^†; wretch, reptile, viper, serpent, cockatrice, basilisk, urchin; tiger^†, monster; devil etc. (demon) 980; devil incarnate; demon in human shape, Nana Sahib; hellhound, hellcat; rakehell^†.    bad woman, jade, Jezebel.    scamp, scapegrace, rip, runagate, ne'er-do-well, reprobate, scalawag, scallawag.    rou_e [Fr.], rake; Sadist; skeesicks [Slang], skeezix [U.S.]; limb; one who has sold himself to the devil, fallen angel, ame damnee [Fr.], vaurien^†, mauvais sujet [Fr.], loose fish, sad dog; rounder [Slang]; lost sheep, black sheep; castaway, recreant, defaulter; prodigal etc. 818.    rough, rowdy, hooligan, tough, ugly customer, mean mother [Coll.], ruffian, bully, meanie [Joc.]; Jonathan Wild; hangman.    incendiary, arsonist, fire bug [U.S.].    thief etc. 792; murderer, terrorist etc. 361.    [person who violates the criminal law] culprit, delinquent, crook, hoodlum, hood, criminal, thug, malefactor, offender, perpetrator, perp [Coll.]; disorderly person, misdemeanant [Law]; outlaw; scofflaw; vandal; felon, (convicted criminal); criminal; convict, prisoner, inmate, jail bird, ticket of leave man; multiple offender.    blackguard, polisson^†, loafer, sneak; rapscallion, rascallion^†; cullion^†, mean wretch, varlet, kern^†, ame-de-boue [Fr.], drole^†; cur, dog, hound^†, whelp^†, mongrel^†; lown^†, loon, runnion^†, outcast, vagabond; rogue etc. (knave) 941; ronian^†; scum of the earth, riffraff; Arcades ambo^†.    ... show more

Roget 862: cowardice, pusillanimity; cowardliness etc. adj.; timidity, effeminacy.    poltroonery, baseness; dastardness^†, dastardy^†; abject fear, funk; Dutch courage; fear etc. 860; white feather, faint heart; cold feet [U.S.], yellow streak [Slang].    coward, poltroon, dastard, sneak, recreant; shy cock, dunghill cock; coistril^†, milksop, white liver, lily liver, nidget^†, one that cannot say 'boo' to a goose; slink; Bob Acres, Jerry Sneak.    alarmist, terrorist^†, pessimist; runagate etc. (fugitive) 623.    ... show more

A disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc..

synonyms: apostate, deserter, ratter, renegade, turncoat.

Roget 941: knave, rogue; Scapin^†, rascal; Lazarillo de Tormes; bad man etc. 949; blackguard etc. 949; barrater^†, barrator^†; shyster [U.S.].    traitor, betrayer, archtraitor^†, conspirator, Judas, Catiline; reptile, serpent, snake in the grass, wolf in sheep's clothing, sneak, Jerry Sneak, squealer [Slang], tell-tale, mischief-maker; trimmer, fence-sitter, renegade etc. (tergiversation) 607; truant, recreant; sycophant etc. (servility) 886.    ... show more

Dutch: overloper, outlaw, afgevallene, afvallige, apostaat, deserteur, dissident, geloofsverzaker, kerkverlater
Polish: apostata, odstępca, odszczepieniec, przechrzta, zaprzaniec

Having deserted a cause or principle:
— Some provinces had proved recreant.

synonym: renegade.

Roget 945: vicious; sinful; sinning etc. v.; wicked, iniquitous, immoral, unrighteous, wrong, criminal; naughty, incorrect; unduteous^†, undutiful.    unprincipled, lawless, disorderly, contra bonos mores [Lat.], indecorous, unseemly, improper; dissolute, profligate, scampish; unworthy; worthless; desertless^†; disgraceful, recreant; reprehensible, blameworthy, uncommendable; discreditable, disreputable; Sadistic.    base, sinister, scurvy, foul, gross, vile, black, grave, facinorous^†, felonious, nefarious, shameful, scandalous, infamous, villainous, of a deep dye, heinous; flagrant, flagitious; atrocious, incarnate, accursed.    Mephistophelian, satanic, diabolic, hellish, infernal, stygian, fiendlike^†, hell-born, demoniacal, devilish, fiendish.    miscreated^†, misbegotten; demoralized, corrupt, depraved.    evil-minded, evil-disposed; ill-conditioned; malevolent etc. 907; heartless, graceless, shameless, virtueless; abandoned, lost to virtue; unconscionable; sunk in iniquity, lost in iniquity, steeped in iniquity.    incorrigible, irreclaimable, obdurate, reprobate, past praying for; culpable, reprehensible etc. (guilty) 947.    unjustifiable; indefensible, inexcusable; inexpiable, unpardonable, irremissible^†.    weak, frail, lax, infirm, imperfect; indiscrete; demoralizing, degrading.    ... show more

Roget 940: dishonest, dishonorable; unconscientious, unscrupulous; fraudulent etc. 545; knavish; disgraceful etc. (disreputable) 974; wicked etc. 945.    false-hearted, disingenuous; unfair, one-sided; double, double-hearted, double-tongued, double-faced; timeserving^†, crooked, tortuous, insidious, Machiavelian, dark, slippery; fishy; perfidious, treacherous, perjured.    infamous, arrant, foul, base, vile, ignominious, blackguard.    contemptible, unrespectable, abject, mean, shabby, little, paltry, dirty, scurvy, scabby, sneaking, groveling, scrubby, rascally, pettifogging; beneath one.    low-minded, low-thoughted^†; base-minded.    undignified, indign^†; unbecoming, unbeseeming^†, unbefitting; derogatory, degrading; infra dignitatem [Lat.], beneath one's dignity; ungentlemanly, ungentlemanlike; unknightly^†, unchivalric^†, unmanly, unhandsome; recreant, inglorious.    corrupt, venal; debased, mongrel.    faithless, of bad faith, false, unfaithful, disloyal; untrustworthy; trustless, trothless^†; lost to shame, dead to honor; barratrous.    ... show more

Lacking even the rudiments of courage; abjectly fearful:
— This recreant knight.

synonym: craven.

Roget 862: coward, cowardly; fearful, shy; timid, timorous; skittish; poor-spirited, spiritless, soft, effeminate.    weak-minded; infirm of purpose etc. 605; weak-hearted, fainthearted, chickenhearted, henhearted^†, lilyhearted, pigeon-hearted; white-livered^†, lily-livered, milk-livered^†; milksop, smock-faced; unable to say 'boo' to a goose.    dastard, dastardly; base, craven, sneaking, dunghill, recreant; unwarlike, unsoldier-like.    in face a lion but in heart a deer.   " unmanned; frightened etc. 860.    ... show more