English
courage
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈkʌɹɪdʒ/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈkʌɹɪdʒ/, /ˈkɝɹɪdʒ/
Noun

courage (uncountable)

  1. The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
    It takes a lot of courage to be successful in business.
  2. The ability to overcome one's fear, do or live things which one finds frightening.
    • , Aristotle, Rhetoric, 1.9.8
      ...courage is the thing by which they are able to take useful actions while amidst hazards...
    He plucked up the courage to tell her how he felt.
  3. The ability to maintain one's will or intent despite either the experience of fear, or the occurrence of adversity, frustration, defeat or reversal.
    • Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
    • Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
    • '1942, C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters''
      “Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality.”
    • 2008, Maya Angelou, address for the 2008 Cornell University commencement
      Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Verb

courage (courages, present participle couraging; past and past participle couraged)

  1. (obsolete) To encourage. [15th-17thc.]
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:21.10?rgn=div2;view=fulltext chapter x], in Le Morte Darthur, book XIX:
      And wete yow wel sayd kynge Arthur vnto Vrres syster I shalle begynne to handle hym and serche vnto my power not presumyng vpon me that I am soo worthy to hele youre sone by my dedes / but I wille courage other men of worshyp to doo as I wylle doo
    • 1530, William Tyndale, "An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue":
      Paul writeth unto Timothy, to instruct him, to teach him, to exhort, to courage him, to stir him up,


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