cower
Americanverb (used without object)
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cowers,
present (3rd person singular)
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cowered,
past participle, past
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cowering
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cowersimple
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cowerssimple
-
have coweredperfect
-
has coweredperfect
-
am coweringprogressive
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are coweringprogressive
-
is coweringprogressive
-
have been coweringperfect progressive
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has been coweringperfect progressive
Past
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coweredsimple
-
had coweredperfect
-
was coweringprogressive
-
were coweringprogressive
-
had been coweringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cower
1250–1300; Middle English couren; cognate with Norwegian, Swedish kūra, Middle Low German kūren, German kauern
Explanation
To cower is to shrink in fear. Whether they live in the country or city, any mouse will cower when a huge, hungry cat approaches. When you cower, you're not just afraid. You're so terrified that your whole body cringes, crouches, and shrinks in on itself to hide from the source of your fear. Victims of a school bully might cower whenever he comes near, and a law-breaking peasant might cower when brought before a cruel king. Although a coward might cower in fear, the two words aren't related.
Vocabulary lists containing cower
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Of Mice and Men
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"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Repression is inevitable when demanding justice, so we must not cower at it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2026
“This is a story of happiness,” Gibson insists at one point, refusing to cower to cancer.
From Salon ● Feb. 3, 2025
Because the court did not cower in the face of this resistance, our country continued forward on the path toward a more just and democratic society.
From Slate ● Feb. 7, 2024
Ten 6-week-old piglets cower together in the corner of a gated pen spread with straw.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 7, 2023
The sight of the trees and the forest floor made him cower and cringe.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
When he pops “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” under the spotlight, a volunteer cowers in the chair while Garry leaps over it with impressive dexterity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
"He doesn't want to go for a walk when he has a muzzle on, he shivers and cowers down, it's horrible to see, but once he's up here he's like a new puppy again."
From BBC ● Feb. 1, 2024
Soldiers then approach a man identified by B’Tselem as 36-year-old Thaar Shahin as he cowers underneath the hood of a car.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 15, 2023
Only when he realizes that George is telling the truth does he reach out with gentleness, but George still cowers away.
From Salon ● Dec. 30, 2021
Sara cowers in her seat and silently chews her peanut-butter sandwich.
From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass
“Others might have cowered or taken time to regroup and figure out what they should do,” said Wald.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
“We’re used to thinking of the Age of Dinosaurs as a time when dinosaurs ruled the world, and the tiny mammals cowered in the shadows.”
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
In the second car, Danielle Boyles, 27, a preschool teacher from South Africa, cowered under an abaya.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2023
He briefly cowered, before realizing it was a taped-up black cricket ball that soared up from the ground floor.
From Salon ● Dec. 15, 2022
I cowered in the train, one uncertain hand drawn up.
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
The image of a fluffy white dog cowering in a corner tugged on heartstrings across the globe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
For Ms. Sweeney and Ms. Seyfried it provides an endless variety of opportunities to run through the soap-opera playbook of screaming, cowering, deceiving and attacking depending on the circumstances, which grow increasingly horrifying.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 18, 2025
On Friday, Musk shared two side-by-side A.I.-generated images of graffiti-style stencils: a smiling, handsome Kirk, and a cowering, dying Zarutska.
From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2025
The image of Ruben Amorim cowering in the dugout at Grimsby will take some forgetting.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2025
In the dim candlelight, her body, crouched like that of an animal cowering in fear, cast an oblong, eerie shadow on the flaking whitewashed wall.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
