poltroon

noun

1. An ignoble or total coward; a dastard; a mean-spirited wretch.

   “Patience is for poltroons, such as he: He durst not sit there, had your father lived.”

   “For the Devil’s a Coward in Nature, A pitiful sorry Poltroon; If you take but the Whip, he’ll give you the Slip; And before you can lash him, he’ll run.”

   “You damned poltroon, you never tried them!”

   “"To gain life by means of a breach of faith and honour, were indeed to render myself the poltroon, and the villain my accusers believe me."”

   “Strong had long understood Sir Francis Clavering’s character, as that of a man utterly weak in purpose, in principle, and intellect, a moral and physical trifler and poltroon.”

adj

1. Cowardly.

   “Accordingly, to excuse our deliberate inactivity in the north, we had to make a show of impotence, which gave them to understand that the Arabs were too poltroon to cut the line near Maan and keep it cut.”