COWER
What does "COWER" mean?
To crouch down or shrink back in fear.
Meanings
- To bend low and draw in the body in fear or in an attempt to hide. The puppy cowered under the table during the thunderstorm.
Did you know?
- 'Cower' has nothing to do with cows: it comes from a Norse-rooted word meaning to crouch or lie in wait, while 'coward' comes separately from a Latin word for 'tail'.
Word origin
From Middle English 'couren', probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse and Middle Low German 'kuren', to lie in wait, crouch); unrelated to the animal 'cow'.
Remember it
To COWER is to make yourself low - picture the C as a curled spine bending down and away.
A little poem
Thunder splits the dark.
The small dog folds into itself-
smaller than its fear.
haiku
Wordplay
- People assume 'cower' has a cow in it. Frankly, that's a load of bull.
What it teaches
Fear makes us small; courage is mostly the refusal to shrink any further.
Quick facts
What does COWER mean?
To crouch down or shrink back in fear.
Is COWER a valid word?
Yes — COWER is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is COWER?
COWER has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does COWER come from?
From Middle English 'couren', probably from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse and Middle Low German 'kuren', to lie in wait, crouch); unrelated to the animal 'cow'.
What can COWER teach us?
Fear makes us small; courage is mostly the refusal to shrink any further.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.