• IPA: /ˈkɹeɪ.vən/

craven

1. Unwilling to fight; lacking even the rudiments of courage; extremely cowardly.
   • 1808 February 21, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: Printed by J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, OCLC 270129616 ↗:

     The poor craven bridegroom said never a word.

• French: lâche
• German: feige
• Portuguese: covarde
• Russian: малоду́шный
• Spanish: cobarde

craven (plural cravens)

1. A coward.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene vii]:

     He is a craven and a villain else.

• French: couard, lâche
• German: Feigling, feiger Hund
• Portuguese: covarde
• Spanish: cobarde

craven (cravens, present participle cravening; past and past participle cravened)

1. To make craven.
   • 1609: William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Cymbeline, Act III, Scene IV

     There is a prohibition so divine / That cravens my weak hand.

1. Surname
2. A local government district in North Yorkshire