pusillanimous
/ˌpjuːsɪˈlanɪməs
/adjective
Showing a lack of courage or determination; timid.And yes, incidentally, I do know that it's ignoble and cowardly and pusillanimous, but I'll swap you for a decent night's sleep....
- Forever is a pusillanimous way of saying ‘as long as I live.’
- Once again, those pusillanimous, patronising, mealy-mouthed lectionary compilers have excelled themselves.
Derivatives
pusillanimity
- Of course, poor Neville does conjure nasty associations with cowardice and pusillanimity.
- But at the moment, under Putin, Russia is launched on a different, worse trajectory, and western leaders have been united in their pusillanimity towards it.
- His fault, if anything, is pusillanimity of a kind that is alarmingly becoming the hallmark of Congress chief ministers.
pusillanimously
- The comedy is, however, pusillanimously counterweighted with a solemn and Oprah-ish subtext that these are way important issues.
- The Energy White Paper of 2003 should have given a clear green light to a new nuclear reactor: instead, it pusillanimously avoided debate.
- And Washington is repeating the sins of the past while our pundits pusillanimously blank out.
Origin
Late Middle English: from ecclesiastical Latin pusillanimis (translating Greek olugopsukhos), from pusillus 'very small' + animus 'mind', + -ous.