Library / English Dictionary

COWER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Show submission or fear

Synonyms:

cower; crawl; creep; cringe; fawn; grovel

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "cower" is one way to...):

bend; flex (form a curve)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

coward (a person who shows fear or timidity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Crouch or curl up

Example:

They huddled outside in the rain

Synonyms:

cower; huddle

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "cower" is one way to...):

bend; bow; crouch; stoop (bend one's back forward from the waist on down)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Credits

 Context examples: 

The cub cowered closer to the ground.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The candle was relit, and there was our wretched captive, shivering and cowering in the grasp of the detective.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He whipped it back with an oath, while she tore herself free and slipped behind Alleyne, cowering up against him like the trembling leveret who sees the falcon poising for the swoop above him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It did not try to get away, but crouched down, quivering and cowering, and was in such a pitiable state of terror that I tried, though without effect, to comfort it.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The result was a sharp peck on the end of his nose that made him cower down and ki-yi.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

One moment Alleyne saw the galley's poop crowded with rushing figures, waving arms, exultant faces; the next it was a blood-smeared shambles, with bodies piled three deep upon each other, the living cowering behind the dead to shelter themselves from that sudden storm-blast of death.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All was in dead, grim silence only that the horses whinnied and cowered, as if in terror of the worst.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

When they threatened, he cowered down.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

And then the horses cowered lower and lower, and moaned in terror as men do in pain.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Grey Beaver clouted White Fang alongside the head, so that he cowered down close to the earth in respectful obedience.

(White Fang, by Jack London)