cower

Pronunciation: /ˈkaʊɚ/

The English word “cower” has 5 meanings listed here.

verb

To crouch or cringe, or to avoid or shy away from something, in fear.
To crouch in general.
To cause to cower; to frighten into submission.
To be a coward; to hide away or refuse to face opposition due to fear.
To cherish with care.

Etymology

From Middle English couren, cowre, from Middle Low German kûren (“to lie in wait; linger”) or from North Germanic (Icelandic kúra (“to doze”)); according to Pokorny, all are ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to curve, bend”), see also Proto-Germanic *kuddô (“shell, pod”). Cognate with German kauern (“to squat”), Dutch koeren (“to keep watch (in a cowered position)”), Serbo-Croatian…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.