cow-babyn.
Obsolete exc. dialect.
A reproachful designation for a timorous person, a coward.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > cowardice or pusillanimity > [noun] > coward(s)
coward?a1289
hen-hearta1450
staniel?a1500
pigeon?1571
cow1581
quake-breech1584
cow-baby1594
custard1598
chicken heart1602
nidget1605
hen?1613
faintling1614
white-liver1614
chickena1616
quake-buttocka1627
skitterbrooka1652
dunghill1761
cow-heart1768
shy-cock1768
fugie1777
slag1788
man of chaff1799
fainter1826
possum1833
cowardy, cowardy, custard1836
sheep1840
white feather1857
funk1859
funkstick1860
lily-liver1860
faint-heart1870
willy boy1895
blert1905
squib1908
fraid cat (also fraidy cat)c1910–23
manso1912
feartie1923
yellowbelly1927
chicken liver1930
boneless wonder1931
scaredy-cat1933
sook1933
pantywaist1935
punk1939
ringtail1941
chickenshit1945
candy-ass1953
pansy-ass1963
unbrave1981
bottler1994
1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits xv. §4. 311 When we will note a man to be a buzzard, and a cow-babie.
1596 T. Nashe Haue with you to Saffron-Walden sig. R2 (Fearfull cowbaby) he neuer heard peice shot off, but hee fell flat on his face.
1614 J. Davies Scourge Folly in Wks. (1876) 212 Peace, lowing cow-babe, lubberly hobberdehoy.
1687 J. Phillips tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote 85 The tears of a sniveling Cow-baby.
1696 E. Phillips New World of Words (new ed.) Cow..the emblem of a cowardly timorous Fellow, who is called a Cow-baby, a Cow-hearted Fellow.
1863 W. Barnes Gram. & Gloss. Dorset Dial. 50 Cow-beäby, a boy or girl childishly meek-hearted, or mother-sick. One easily cowed.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1893; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.1594