View synonyms for cower

cower

[ kou-er ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

verb (used without object)

cower

/ ˈkaʊə /

Origin of cower¹

1250–1300; Middle English couren; cognate with Norwegian, Swedish kūra, Middle Low German kūren, German kauern

Origin of cower¹

C13: from Middle Low German kūren to lie in wait; related to Swedish kura to lie in wait, Danish kure to squat

Durbin has spoken out fearlessly against the NRA while so many of his colleagues in Congress cower.

Camus did not cower from the depressing implications of his insight.

Life in Gaza has ground to a halt as electricity fails, bombs fall, and residents cower.

Was this their first real rocket-induced cower, as it was mine?

Either we have the means to intimidate them or we have to cower in fear.

Will not this coming Yankee Congress force all the world either to cower before them, or check them by upholding us?

And he would cower in the background blushing his absurd little blushes at his second-hand temerity.

Wave after wave of them come across in their field gray-blue uniforms and they never cower.

If, with growing clarity of vision, catastrophe ensued, then was time enough to shrink and cower.

But even then Ruth could not speak; it had come in too tender a moment, had found her too exposed; she could only cower back.

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