- 1懦弱、貪生怕死（書面、偏文言；口語比較會說膽小、沒種）
Craven means completely without courage — not merely afraid, but spinning away from danger or duty in a way that invites contempt. Anyone can feel fear. A craven person, in this older, sharper use, will not stand up, will not tell the truth, will not protect anyone, because they put their own safety first. The word is literary and rather old-fashioned. You will meet it in books, speeches, and news opinion more than in the . In ordinary talk people say , scared, or chicken. Using craven today often sounds like a judgement from a high place, which is why writers still reach for it when they want to sting. It can describe a person, an act, or an excuse. There is also a noun, a craven, meaning a coward, but the adjective is what students will see most. It is not related, in any way you can trust, to . They only look similar.
組成From Middle English cravant. It may come from Old French cravanté, “defeated,” the past participle of cravanter (ultimately from Latin crepare), or it may be a reshaping of creaunt, “defeated,” under the influence of craven “to crave.” Scholars do not agree, so the honest account stops there. What is clear is the old sense “defeated / yielding,” which hardened into “with no courage.”
同家族的字
- cravenlythe adverb, “in a cowardly way”
原始詞典資料7 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Cravenname
- 1
A surname.
- 2
A former local government district in North Yorkshire, England, merged in 2023 into the North Yorkshire unitary authority.
- 3
A village in the Rural Municipality of Longlaketon No. 219, Saskatchewan, Canada.
- 4
A locality in the MidCoast council area, eastern New South Wales, Australia.
cravenadj/ˈkɹeɪ.vən/
- 1
Unwilling to fight; lacking even the rudiments of courage; extremely cowardly.
- The poor craven bridegroom said never a word.
- Prime Minister Abe's fumbling and craven performance took place on a national holiday in Korea, marking the countrywide uprising against the Japanese colonial rule that began on March 1, 1919. March 1 is also the day in 1932 that Japan chose to inaugurate Manchukuo (after seizing northeastern China).
cravennoun/ˈkɹeɪ.vən/
- 1
archaicA coward.
- He is a craven and a villain else.
- “God knows I would rather die licked in the fire by the side of my king than to live out my days twitted and scorned as a craven.”
cravenverb/ˈkɹeɪ.vən/
- 1
archaicTo make craven.
- There is a prohibition so divine / That cravens my weak hand.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。